Preview Qatar – Makoto Tamada: 'I am very confident and very excited'

The Camel Honda team and the entire world championship circus will experience a historic event next Saturday, the first motorcycling Grand Prix in the Middle East. We will race on an absolutely new track, inaugurated just two months ago, of which only the layout of the track is known. It is known that it has a very long straight (1.068 metres), sixteen corners of which 10 on the right and 6 on the left and that, with its 5.380 metres, it ranks among the longest tracks on the calendar (fourth after Assen, Sepang and Brno in the order). A great challenge therefore for technicians and drivers in addition to the scorching heat and the unknown grip conditions of the asphalt. However, the two riders of the Camel Honda team are calm given that Max Biaggi has always loved racing in the heat and can boast positive records when he finds himself making his debut on new tracks (see Welkom 1999 for example), while Makoto Tamada believes he has an advantage the fact that everyone is facing a new situation.

Giulio Bernardelle – Camel Honda (Technical Director Makoto Tamada)
“Qatar is an absolute novelty for all of us but we go there with the same spirit and the same tranquility with which we face every race. Analyzing the track it seems to me that it has several similarities with that of Motegi and Sepang and this is fine for us given that Makoto won in Japan while in Malaysia, during the winter tests, he was very fast. It remains to be seen what the asphalt will be like: the only certainty is that it will be very hot, while we don't know what the grip conditions will be like. Given its location in the middle of the desert, it is reasonable to expect the possibility of there being sand, but this remains to be verified. In any case, our tires made a nice leap in quality in the second part of the season, so we are very confident and calm."

Makoto Tamada #6: (Bridgestone Tires)
“Winning at Motegi, in front of my friends and my people, was truly fantastic, a great emotion that I will remember for a long time, but now we need to focus on the next race. Qatar is a circuit that obviously doesn't know any team or even any tire supplier. This means that the skill and talent of the drivers will count even more than usual and this is one reason why I think I can have another race fighting for the podium until the end. I have seen the layout of the track and the design seems simple to me, without any particular technical difficulties. But we need to turn around before speaking. Let's say that I don't think it will take us long to learn it, but then only when we put the wheels on the track will we be able to know for sure how to interpret it. I am very confident and very excited."

Camel Honda