Kawasaki after Nakano

Kawasaki’s technical chief Ichiro Yoda has admitted losing Shinya Nakano at the end of 2006 was a big blow.

But Yoda added it shouldn’t seriously hamper development of the new ZX-RR 800cc machine.

Kawasaki was left reeling last September when Nakano told bosses he was quitting after three years as their number one rider to join the Konica Minolta Honda squad.

“This is a little bit of a disadvantage without Shinya,” said Yoda, who joined Kawasaki having previously been project leader of the first Yamaha YZR-M1 990cc four-stroke in 2002.

He added: “Shinya has spent many years in MotoGP and he knows what is important for the development and also the bike. 

“But we have also educated Randy de Puniet and Olivier Jacque is quite experienced so my feeling for development is these two are good enough.”