Edwards seeks Michelin backlash

Double World Superbike champion Colin Edwards is confident Michelin will bounce back from its Turkey trouncing to turn the tables on tyre rivals Bridgestone in the Shanghai GP on May 6, 2007.

The American didn’t last long enough in last weekend’s Turkish GP to encounter the rear grip problems which left Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi languishing in 10th.

Edwards was one of the innocent victims of the first lap chaos caused by Frenchman Olivier Jacque.

But Edwards had chosen the same rear Michelin tyre Rossi struggled so badly on. And he said it was clear that Michelin needed to make big improvements after Bridgestone claimed the top six places in Istanbul.

According to Edwards, the biggest advantage for Bridgestone is the ability for riders to go flat-out from the first corner of a race.

The 33-year-old, who was passed on first lap by Ducati duo Casey Stoner, Loris Capirossi and John Hopkins on the first lap, said: “I guess Michelin will be working pretty hard for Shanghai now.

“I got off the line good but the days of having to choose a hard tyre – which we did – and let it come after two laps doesn’t apply anymore.
“That type of engineering has gone out of the window with the other tyre manufacturer. They seem to have something that works really good from the very beginning. I mean really good.

“It was unbelievable how quickly the Ducati’s got by me on the first lap. I was trying to get out of my own way, that’s what it felt like.

“It was like my shadow was chasing me and I’m trying to get somewhere but the thing is like ice on the first lap trying trying get some heat build into it.

“Whenever you choose a hard rubber like we had to, after the sighting lap and warm-up lap and kind of just sitting on the grid it cools down a little bit.

“You got to spend a good two laps to get it up to temperature. Valentino did his best lap on the third or fourth lap and that’s what it takes before he feels he can push.

“That whole engineering ploy, I think Bridgestone have got that figured out at the moment. They can build a tyre that will run the distance but they can also get it really good at the beginning.” Edwards said he couldn’t have chosen a softer tyre for the 22-lap Turkey clash as it would not have lasted the race distance

And he added: “I was in between soft and hard and the softer tyre I was going to choose I knew would be good early on. But I knew as well it wouldn’t worth a damn after half race.

“That’s why I went with a harder one and it was the same as Valentino. He had some pretty big issues. This is what it is with tailor making tyres and being able to make Honda tyres and Yamaha tyres.

“The tyre we wanted and we thought would be the one we didn’t have. It’s easy to look in hindsight and say we need a tyre with this rubber and this construction because obviously Nicky (Hayden) chose the right tyre.

“He hadn’t done anything all weekend and he just chose the right tyre that we didn’t have anyway. But it seemed to work pretty good,” said Edwards, who missed testing yesterday after suffering serious swelling on his right knee.

With the new tyre restrictions coming into force for the 2007, Edwards said it was likely that a repeat of Istanbul is likely throughout the season on tracks where no winter has taken place.

Bridgestone got their tyre choice bang on the money in Turkey, and Edwards said: “I said that at Jerez. There will be races when Michelin hits the mark and races when Bridgestone hits the mark and obviously at this track Bridgestone hit the mark.

“At the end of the day it’s just a guessing game. All you can do is take last year’s data and build a tyre on that for most of the tracks we are going to.

“So it’s bound to happen and it did. But I thought Michelin would have hit the mark here instead of Bridgestone.”

Edwards sat out yesterday’s test session after knocking his right knee but said there was no question mark over his fitness for the China GP.

He added: “I just got a little gash in my right knee and pulled it out of socket. I don’t have an anterior cruciate ligament there anyway.

“I blew that out a long time ago and I do it a lot playing basketball sometimes. It takes a couple of days for the swelling to go down and back to normal.”