Ellison has unfortunate start on the M1
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Wednesday, 25 January 2006 |
The year has not started ideally for the Tech 3 Yamaha team, with rider James Ellison being ill for the duration of the Sepang test.
As Ellison is new to the Yamaha M1 in 2006 the main goal for the Sepang test was to gather data for tyre supplier Dunlop as well as to generally get a feel for the new bike. Ellison ended the test with a best time of 2’04.17, an improvement of 2.2 seconds over his best lap on Monday.  James Ellison
“I got sick over a week ago and I really hoped it would be okay by now but I was at my worst on Monday for the first day of the test! It was really disappointing because we had so much to do! Yesterday and today were better and we managed to get a lot of laps done and make some progress. I am pretty knackered after the three days! The bike is really good, the main difference I can see from the one I rode last year is in the power…there’s more of it! This circuit is not one of my favourites and I find it quite hard, but I am a little disappointed with my times over the days. Obviously I am much faster than I was in the race last year but I am still off the pace a bit - I thought I could be a bit closer to the main group. I am definitely not fast enough considering that I am on a factory Yamaha. With Dunlop the main problem is traction – with qualifying tyres it’s great but with race tyres we have some problems and some chatter in the rear. I hope that in Qatar – a track I really like and where Dunlop performs well – we can do better and make more progress.” Herve Poncharal - Team Director“It’s been a hard test, but in the end it’s been quite important for us. We’ve done a lot of tyre testing, which was our main aim for the week and we are quite happy with the directions we’ve found for the front and rear. James has done a really good job, especially considering that he’s been ill, and it hasn’t been easy for him. Our main mission for this year is to develop with Dunlop and this has just been the start of a long year’s work. We’re very happy with the new M1, it seems that Yamaha has done an excellent job over the winter and this new bike is a big step forward from the old one. Obviously the main thing is for Dunlop to get as much data and laps done as possible. With this in mind and as everyone knows, we are still hoping to have a second rider and we are working as hard as possible to try to find a solution and a way to attend the test in Qatar with two riders.”
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