Britain’s Leon Camier has expressed almost disbelief at the amount of grip generated by the wet Bridgestone MotoGP tyres and said that he is able to scrape his elbow even in the pouring rain.
The former British Superbike Champion, who is only on his second outing with the Drive M7 Honda team, had his first outing in the rain on a MotoGP bike and said it was so hard to comprehend how fast he could go.
“This morning, first time here, was not too bad but this afternoon, in the wet, took some getting my head around because the grip is phenomenal. From where I have come from, I have managed to crash on wets because you can’t even get your knee down. It’s a matter of building confidence,” said Camier, speaking at the track.
“There are corners where you have got your elbow down in the wet, you can’t comprehend that, and I can go more for sure. You have to be able to enter the corner fast enough, use your body to turn and when you have come from something where you can’t get your knee down, it takes some confidence building.”
Camier says the only pressure he is under is what he puts on himself and now they need dry track time to change the bike and for the 6ft 3in rider to alter his style to suit the production Honda.
“I don’t know about pressure, only what I put on myself. Trying to make the next step is the hard thing, we understand where I need to improve and for me to understand how to do it. It’s not as easy as going out, brake later, turn in there… you have to have the feeling and confidence to do it.
“Now it’s about changing the bike and changing my style to suit. That is the harder part. The main thing for me is the tyres and brakes, the tyres being the biggest. You have so much more front grip and angle, and you can brake and turn in with the brake on but if you don’t have enough load, the bike won’t turn.
“So, you have to be going fast enough to load the front late on in the turn which is the point where we are trying to find. At the moment, the bike is quite soft and I can roll around the track quite nicely. Now I need to start braking later, turning in with the brake on.”
