Work begins at Phillip Island for KONICA MINOLTA Honda KONICA MINOLTA Honda arrives at the next leg of their gruelling winter test schedule aiming to find a good base set-up for their all-new Honda RC212V. With the start of the season just over five weeks away, it’s vital that the Team and rider Shinya Nakano get the new 800cc machine dialled-in, allowing Shinya to begin to turn in consistently quick lap times. With Nakano being new to the team, the bike and the Michelin tyres, KONICA MINOLTA Honda have a lot to do before the first race of the season on 10th March. The fast, challenging nature of Phillip Island should prove a thorough test of the new V4 machine, allowing the Team to gain more valuable information as they chase that elusive perfect set-up for the bike. Gianluca Montiron Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda “Our target for this test is to get to know better the package we have at our disposal by doing more miles with the new Honda RC212V and to give Shinya all the information he needs day-by-day to get a comfortable setting for the bike. At the moment we are concentrating on finding a basic setting and after we’ve done this, we will adapt it to the different circuits and to the new Michelin tyres. To be honest, for me it will be important to see good results from the stopwatch at the end of the day’s testing because I know how important it is for the motivation of the rider and the Team as we approach the first race of the season.” Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “For this next test we need to improve our cornering speed, which is very important on the new 800cc machine. To do this we need to find a good setting for the front-end of the bike. In Sepang, I had chatter problems under hard braking and this affected my corner entry speed. Chatter can be caused by the suspension setting or how the engine behaves on the downshifts before the corner, so this is something we need to work on. After the first Malaysian tests I also need to get more used to riding the new Honda RC212V and become more familiar with the Michelin tyres. At Phillip Island, I’m also looking to find a better set-up, which will improve my confidence with the bike and allow me in turn to push harder. My KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team and myself will also be learning how to improve communication between us. Step-by-step we are learning to understand each other better and the aim is to reach a perfect understanding of each other! Phillip Island is a high-speed track and you need to have a good overall setting to go fast. With my performance here last year when I was leading the race, I feel more confident on this track and I look forward to seeing how the new 800cc Honda feels. I love the fast parts of the track, in particular turn two, which is very exciting!” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “The Phillip Island track is very demanding and going fast here during this early part of the pre-season test means that the Team has already found a good base set-up and that the riders have found a high-level of confidence in riding these new 800cc machines. For us, these are early stages of a completely new technical adventure, so we need to make methodical progress towards our goal of being 100% ready for the first race of the year. It will be very important for us to get a good race set-up with the Honda RC212V as soon as possible and then set consistently quick lap times in order to be able to develop tyres and the other bike components at the required high level. The challenges set by the Australian track will help us make an important step in the right direction.”