Despite the understandable media focus on the riders, MotoGP is essentially a team sport. All the natural talent and relentless work of a MotoGP rider only amounts to true competitiveness when he’s also got a good bike and the support of an excellent team to help him.
When Alvaro Bautista moved to the MotoGP class, his team suddenly became much bigger than it was in previous seasons in the smaller categories. And in every MotoGP team the most important go-to guy for a rider every weekend is his crew chief who represents the link between the feedback of the rider and what needs to be done on the bike.
Since Alvaro joined the Rizla Suzuki team last year, he has the calm and affable Tom O’Kane by his side who’s already worked in MotoGP for over a decade and with riders like Kenny Roberts Jr. and Chris Vermeulen.
We met up with the Irishman at the 2010 post-season test in Valencia and asked him a few questions about his work with Alvaro.

Looking at the current weather* would it make any sense for you to go out in wet conditions now to test? Do you have wet tyres to use?
We do have a set of wet tyres sitting there, yes, but probably it’d be better to wait and see if the conditions improve. But if it looks like it’s gonna be wet for both days then we might make the decision to run in the rain.

But regarding the development of the bike it wouldn’t make much sense for you to go out?
No, we only go out in the rain if we can’t get any dry time.

Okay, so let’s start the interview with your educational background and how you got into MotoGP.
I’ve got a Bachelor of Engineering and Electronic Engineering. I first started as an electronic engineer about twenty years ago and then moved into this job.

And how did you get to work for the Suzuki team?
I used to worked for Kenny Roberts Sr. when I started first in 1998 with Kenny’s team. I continued there until Kenny Jr. was working here with Suzuki and he asked me to come across and work as crew chief with him.

You’ve worked with different riders over the years, all with different riding styles and probably different ways of working as well. What is the biggest difference for you and what do you try to do when you get a new rider to work with?
You have to adapt to the rider. You know, Alvaro for example is much less interested in the detail of what we do with the bike than some of the other riders. Which for me is the ideal situation if you can have it. But on the other hand, when you have a rider who wants more technical information about the bike, you can’t say to him “No, no, you can’t have it”. You have to try to give him what he wants. But for me the ideal situation is if you have a rider who is just thinking about going fast and giving us the feedback on whether we are going in the right direction or not.

How much do you rely on what the rider tells you about the bike instead of taking it from the data?
100%. The data just gives us the quantity. The rider tells us what’s going on and we check the data just to see basically how to fix the problem that the rider reports on.

Are there ever situations when the rider tells you one thing, but the data maybe tells you differently? How do you go about that?
No, the thing is, people maybe sometimes overestimate how much the data tells you. There is not one channel on there that, for example, tells you how well the bike is turning. There are a number of channels where you can see the lean angle and the forces and so on, but if the rider says the bike doesn’t finish the corner then you can’t go to the data and see a channel which says “No, the bike is actually finishing the corner”. It just doesn’t work that way.

When asked about the impact of the new feedback coming from Valentino Rossi Ducati’s General Manager Filippo Preziosi also said something similar, that for the development of a bike there’s maximally 50% of it coming from the data, the other 50% comes from the feeling of the rider. Would you agree with that?
I don’t even think you can put a percentage on it. Because I think the data only plays a supporting role, you can’t really break that down into percentages. It’s not like it’s 50% rider here and 50% data there. It’s more like you have the rider information here and in the background you have the data when you want to go into more detail, you know.

You said that it’s an ideal situation for you if the rider doesn’t want to know that much about what you do with the bike and only focuses on going fast. But how much do you think is still necessary for the rider to know about the technical details of the bike, do you think it helps them to do their job better if they know what’s going on?
Up to a certain extend. Obviously certain things they have to be 100% aware of, like the tyre situation and some basic things. But if a rider asks you for example “What’s my steering head angle?”, for me it doesn’t help the situation for the rider to know this. It means that maybe he has experience with other bikes that he’s ridden in the past and he’s known what the geometry was and it may sort of create an image in his mind before he gets on the bike as to what to expect from the bike. It’s much better that the rider gets on the bike and just feels it as a combination and then comes back and says that it either turns well or it doesn’t turn well or it tucks the front or the front feels planted. No preconceived ideas is always better for us.

With Alvaro coming from 125cc and 250cc bikes, how do you think does that compare to MotoGP and how he maybe needed to change his way of working to tell you exactly what he feels on the bike?
Well, I actually asked Alvaro that same question around this time last year [testing at Valencia 2009] not long after he started to ride the bike and he said there was a much bigger step going from the 125cc bike to the 250cc than it was from the 250cc to MotoGP bike. In terms of dynamics, in terms of how heavy the bike was to change direction and what it felt like to run into the corner. The big difference for him was going from 125cc to 250cc.

When the rider comes in and just says that the bike doesn’t turn well, how do you actually translate that into what you can do with the bike?
It just comes from past experience really. You know, we obviously have an idea of a base setting. Okay, that same setting doesn’t work on every type of corner or every type of race track or in every grip condition. But just from past experience on how our bike has worked in different types of corners and different types of conditions; if he comes in with a certain comment like for example that the front tyre doesn’t give him a good feeling going through the corner, then the first thing you think about is of course the tyre compound. If the tyre compound is correct for the conditions then you’ll look at suspension positions and if the suspension positions look like they are in the ballpark, giving the correct steering geometry, then you start to think about other things like weight distribution and so on. All based on your past experience. You basically check the simple things first, like have we got the right tyre in there, have we the right position of the bike going into the corner. And then you move on to the more difficult stuff.

Speaking about previous data: How much does the work change for you in the 2011 season when you already have the data for him going to all the tracks?
It’ll be much better. It gives us a platform then. We have for the initial setup every weekend the previous data. And at every race track so far with Alvaro we had to take last year’s [Chris Vermeulen’s] setting and then go from there. But next year it’ll be straightforward, we know what’s the best setting and begin with that.

Does the work for you change at all with Alvaro being the only rider in the team? Because this year there’s also been a lot of data exchange between Loris and Alvaro.
Yeah, it makes it difficult in one way and easier in another. The difficulty is that we have less feedback. Sometimes with two riders and two different styles, you get more of an overview of the situation. Like for example if we go to a race track next year and we can’t get any grip, we have to ask us if it’s the track or is it the setting. If we have two riders and one of them is getting grip and the other is not, then we immediately know that there’s nothing wrong with the track, we have to get the grip out of the bike. That’s the negative side.
The positive side is that the Japanese Suzuki staff is now really focused on Alvaro and basically we have twice the attention that we had last year.

There’s of course the worry that with only one rider there’ll also be less development, because Suzuki probably pulled out the other bike for a reason…
Well, no. I mean, we have the test menu for this [Valencia] test and the development is actually accelerating.

Can you tell us what you’re testing?
In this test it will mainly be chassis items and some engine items also.

Talking about new test items, how much can you actually adjust a bike for a certain rider? Can you really make it completely his, so that others would have difficulty to ride it well, even though the components are the same?
Well, we have enough adjustments to get it completely wrong. [laughs] I mean really, these bikes are so adjustable. You know, with a given rider you work within a certain area and every now and again you find a direction that moves you to another area of setting and hopefully you’re moving to a higher level and then you can work from there. But yeah, they are very, very adjustable. Most of the settings we keep close to the baseline.

Which would probably also make it easier to keep the bike universally rideable when a new rider comes in.
Well, with Alvaro coming in last year, because both his and Loris’ background were the same, being 125cc and 250cc riders, no Superbikes or anything, it was easy. We just started him with Loris’ setting completely and started from there at this Valencia test last year.

It seems that Alvaro has the tendency, already visible in the smaller classes, not to do too well in practice and qualifying, but then fire up on Sunday and improve immensely in the race. How much of those troubles can you actually trace back to problems with the bike, or lack of experience in the class or just to Alvaro’s style of racing?
Well, probably 90% of my focus next year will be trying to get us up the grid and start from the first three rows, minimum the first three rows, every time if we can. How to do that I haven’t fully worked out yet [laughs]. But from our side, the technical side, we do everything possible that we can. You know, getting a better setting in the first session is always gonna help us. The problem with being the first year on the bike at every race track is that every first session is usually spent just getting a good baseline. Next year is gonna be better, because first of all we have an extra session. Even if it’s only 45 minutes, it’s still an extra session and it’s an extra period between sessions where he can think about what’s going on. And the second thing next year is that we will be starting from a good setting in every session, hopefully. Those things I think are gonna help next year.

In the races themselves he’s often fallen back a bit in the first few laps and then improved his laptimes immensely towards the end of the race. Afterwards he was often quoted that he didn’t have a good feeling with the bike at the beginning. Can you explain why his feeling with the bike sometimes changes so abruptly during a race?
Yeah, well, there is a technical matter there as well of getting the feeling and the grip from the tyres in the first few laps. And when I say tyres I mean the rear tyre basically. Some teams and riders are obviously getting that. All you have to do is look at Casey [Stoner] on some of his outlaps on new tyres and you see what can be done. That’s something we really have to work on as well. But I think it’s one thing to get good grip and feeling in the first few laps, but also if you’re trying to do that and you’re in 12th place, it makes it twice as hard. Because you can’t ride the bike the way you want to ride it as you’re basically trying to get past other riders first.

Finally, in terms of rider differences, is there anything special about working with Alvaro? You’ve mentioned before that he wants to know less about the bike than other riders.
Just his ability to race is better than anyone that I’ve seen for a long, long time. And how much fun he gets from racing.

Thank you very much for the interview.

We’d like to thank to Tom O’Kane for taking the time to talk to us and Tim Walpole for helping us set up interviews with the Suzuki team members at Valencia.
Interview by Vroom Media. Photos courtesy of Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Team.

*[It had been raining the morning of the first test day with forecasts being a bit unpredictable]

Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista had a hard-fought 10th position cruelly snatched from his grasp in the final few metres of today’s Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

The Spaniard got a good start from 14th on the grid and was up into 11th by the end of lap one. As the race progressed – and the field started to spread out – Bautista found himself riding a lonely race, but never gave up the pursuit of Mika Kallio, who had had pulled a gap in-front of him. He chased and caught the Finnish rider on lap 24, but then Bautista was put under pressure from behind by Randy de Puniet. As the final lap started de Puniet had got in front of Bautista, but Suzuki’s Spanish star fought back to lead the three riders on to the final straight. As the drag for the line developed, both de Puniet and Kallio drafted past Bautista, leaving the Suzuki man in 12th position, just 0.097 seconds from a thoroughly deserved 10th place.

Today’s race was held in bright sunshine as the conditions finally improved after some awful weather at the Australian circuit this year. A crowd of 41,537 fans at trackside witnessed a commanding victory by home favourite Casey Stoner, as he took his fourth successive MotoGP win at the Phillip Island circuit, with a flag-to-flag victory from pole position.

Rizla Suzuki will now return to Europe for the final two races of the season in Portugal and Spain respectively. The first of this double-header will take place at Estoril on Sunday 31st October, with the final race of the season at Valencia the following weekend.

Álvaro Bautista: “I knew that today would be a difficult race and I would really have to ride at my maximum to get anything from it. I got a good start and felt good into the first corner, I was able to overtake other riders but I didn’t really have a good enough rhythm straight away and lost some positions and time. At the end of the race I was in a great battle with de Puniet and Kallio and we fought hard with each other in the last laps. On the last lap I passed de Puniet on the outside of turn seven and I got into 10th. On the last corner I tried to close the inside line so they couldn’t get past me and as I was about 40 metres from the finish line I felt the bike lose a bit of power and speed and I lost two places. I don’t know if the bike had a problem or not, but today I felt like I finished 10th, but the bike was 12th! It is not a good result compared to the last races, but here we knew that it would be a difficult weekend. I would liked to have finished in the top 10 because that result for Suzuki here would have been a very good one, but at the end – because of the bike – I could not finish there. We now have to work very hard in the next two races and I can’t wait to get to Portugal and get riding again to forget the result here.”

Tom O’Kane – Crew Chief Álvaro Bautista:
“In my opinion Álvaro rode to a top-10 finish today at a racetrack that we really struggle at. The fact that he got passed on the line wasn’t his fault and he’s done an incredible job over the weekend – in really difficult circumstances and conditions. I think my opinion of him has gone up more this weekend than it did after his fifth place in Malaysia and I’m sure he’ll bounce right back from today and be pushing hard when we get to Portugal.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Rizla Suzuki faces an uphill battle at the Australian Grand Prix tomorrow as both racers struggled to come to grips with the chilly conditions at the Phillip Island circuit today.

Álvaro Bautista (P14, 1’33.224, 26 laps) got his first taste of dry conditions around the 4,448m circuit on a MotoGP machine as the expected rain never materialised. Bautista and his crew worked methodically throughout the morning practice session and this afternoon’s qualifying to overcome some turning issues he had with his GSV-R through the corners. Towards the end of the afternoon session he thought they had made a breakthrough, but rain started to fall for the final few minutes and he wasn’t able to further test the modifications.

Today’s conditions were an improvement on yesterday’s, but only in the fact that it stayed dry for most of the two sessions. The cold wind that kept the rain clouds at bay also meant that although the air temperatures reached 11°C, the wind chill made it only 6°C and kept track temperatures in the low 20s. Local hero Casey Stoner took pole position today as he aims for his fourth successive Australian Grand Prix victory this weekend.

Sunday’s race is the 16th on the calendar and will signal the end of a tough three weeks that has seen the Grand Prix circus visit Japan, Malaysia and Australia in consecutive weekends. The main event will get underway tomorrow at 16.00hrs local time (05.00hrs GMT).

Álvaro Bautista: “It is a much different feeling here today than it was in Malaysia a week ago! We had the opportunity to ride in dry conditions today, but this morning we had a problem with the bike in the corners and I just couldn’t make it turn quick enough and I kept going out wide. This meant I couldn’t enter fast enough as well so I was losing a lot of time. This afternoon we tried two different specifications on the bikes and one of them was a little bit worse and the other was a bit better – but still not perfect. We have some hard work to do to still improve, but we have another opportunity in warm-up to try and get things better. We will continue with the way that we followed towards the end of this afternoon’s session and see if we can make some more steps forward. We know it’s going to be difficult, because after last week I had a lot of confidence coming to this race and thought that we could improve in the colder conditions, but it has been a lot colder than we thought it would be and that has made it a lot more difficult. In the race – as always – I will try to do my maximum and get the best result possible. It will be a tough race but I want to fight for a top-10, I know that is going to be hard, but we must try to be there.”

Tom O’Kane – Crew Chief Álvaro Bautista:
“It’s certainly been a difficult day, but we started to move in a positive direction towards the end of qualifying and it was a shame the rain came when it did. The modification that we made this afternoon was just as we put in the first soft tyre and it was the first step forward that we had taken all day, we will keep working in that direction in warm-up because I think there is still a bit to come from the bike and Álvaro. We usually have a few issues at this track – that is quite well known – but our problems are not as drastic as usual, we have grip now where we didn’t have before and we just need to work a bit on the turning to give Álvaro the chance to fight further up the field tomorrow.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista rode a fantastic race at Misano in Italy today to bring his GSV-R home in eighth place after a hard-fought race.

Bautista started from 16th on the grid and was lucky to avoid a first corner incident that caused him to lose time on the pack of riders in front of him. He quickly regained his composure and set about chasing the field. Bautista caught and passed a number of riders as he made his way up to eighth on lap 18, he then tried to catch Colin Edwards who had a large gap between himself and Bautista, but the Rizla Suzuki man was unable to bridge the distance – even though he made huge in-roads into the American’s lead.

Today’s race was won by Spaniard Dani Pedrosa with World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo in second. Sadly today’s race was overshadowed by tragic events in the Moto2 race earlier in the day. Japanese rider Shoya Tomizawa was fatally injured in an accident that involved two other riders. The 19-year-old was taken to hospital, but was pronounced dead upon arrival. The thoughts and prayers of the whole Rizla Suzuki team are extended to Tomizawa’s family, friends and team during this traumatic period.

Rizla Suzuki will next be in action at a brand new racetrack to the MotoGP calendar, as it travels to the Aragon circuit in Spain for the next round of the season on Sunday 19th September.

Álvaro Bautista:
“It has now become a very difficult day and I don’t really know what to say. I had a good race, even though I had to avoid Loris and Nicky after they crashed and I lost my position. I tried to get in my rhythm as quick as I could because I knew I had a good pace. When I was catching the group in front of me I made a mistake and put the bike into neutral – so I lost some more distance on them. I concentrated hard and pushed to the limit and I managed to go faster than I had in practice and I caught the group up. Once I was with them I knew I was faster so I got past them and pulled away. Today nobody crashed in front of me during the race so it was a true eighth position and I was very pleased with that. I was happy at the end of the race because the position was good and I was happy with the race-pace, but when we had finished the race I heard the news about Tomizawa and I am just so sorry for him and all his family. It is a hard day for all riders, I am sure he will stay with us always and I hope he is now in a better place.”

Tom O’Kane – Álvaro Bautista’s Crew Chief:
“Firstly I want to say to Tomizawa’s family and friends that we all send our deepest sympathies – it’s a terrible thing that has happened and Álvaro was very upset when he heard the news at the end of the race. With regards to the race, he got a very good start off the line, but took a few laps to find his rhythm. Then it looked like he had a really fun race, he was chasing guys down and passing them with what looked like ease. His fastest lap in the race is the fastest one he has done all weekend and we as a team will be doing all we can to move him up in qualifying to see what he can do from the second or third row.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Rizla Suzuki racer Álvaro Bautista produced a battling and mature race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to bring his Suzuki GSV-R home in a respectable eighth place.

Bautista got boxed in at the start and was relegated to 14th at the end of the first lap; he quickly got on the pace and was able to pass some riders with relative ease. He caught up with Marco Simoncelli at half-distance and had a tremendous battle with the Italian for the rest of the race. Bautista tried a number of times to overtake his old adversary, but was unable to find the opportunity to get past – mainly due to the condition of the Indianapolis circuit in the places where Bautista was sure he could make a move and his determination to get to the finish line and complete the race.

Today’s race was held in very warm conditions with air temperatures getting up to 35ºC and track surfaces hitting 56ºC. A crowd of 62,794 saw Dani Pedrosa win the race with home favourite and pole setter Ben Spies in second, World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo was third.

Rizla Suzuki now heads across the Atlantic for the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix to be staged at Misano in Italy next weekend on Sunday 5th September.

Álvaro Bautista:
“It was a hard and very difficult race because it was so hot that you could feel the heat coming from the bike and from the ground. It made it a very physical race, but that was also a good test for me to see how my body had healed and at the end I still felt strong. I lost a few places at the start, but I was able to overtake other riders very quickly and I got behind Kallio and decided to follow him because he had a good rhythm and I didn’t want to use all my energy with a long race ahead. We caught up to Simoncelli and I knew I was faster than Kallio so it was better to pass him and catch Simoncelli on my own. I saw two points on the track where I could then get past Simoncelli, but they were both very risky because they were very bumpy. I tried to get past in turn 10 but it was just too dangerous to go past because it was so bumpy and I wanted to finish the race – as it had been a long time since I’d done that. I finished in the top 10 and we did a good job through the whole weekend. This morning we made a big change in the gearbox and that worked very well for me. I am happy with the weekend and the team worked fantastic, we have another race next week and I’m looking forward to that already.”

Tom O’Kane – Álvaro Bautista’s Crew Chief:
“Álvaro rode a really solid race today, at a track that hasn’t been very good to us in the past, so that is a very promising thing to take forward as we move to tracks where our bike has gone better in the past. We are really happy to get a finish and get through a whole race weekend without the dramas that we have had recently. Álvaro made a big change to his gearbox this morning in the warm-up and we were able to see an improvement in his lap-times immediately – especially in the second sector of the lap – and he adapted to the different pattern of the box very quickly and that also showed in the race. Overall he rode a good race and had a tough battle with Simoncelli, it’s neither here-nor-there whether he got past him or not, but it was very important to get into the top-10 and for him to come away from here with a lot more confidence in his own ability and that of the bike.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Rizla Suzuki will be looking to make big improvements during tomorrow’s final free practice session after a tough first hour on the track at Indianapolis today left both riders with work to do.

Álvaro Bautista (P14, 1’42.696, 26 laps) used today’s only session to get his bearings around the 4,216m Indianapolis Motor Speedway on a MotoGP bike. Having only previously visited the circuit on a 250cc machine, he needed time to get used to the track and find his braking and accelerating points. Bautista recorded his fastest lap right at the end of the session and is in a determined mood to make personal improvements for the rest of the weekend.

Today’s practise was held in warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures reaching 51ºC. Casey Stoner on his factory Ducati recorded the fastest time of the day.

Rizla Suzuki has one more practice session tomorrow morning, followed by an hour of qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 28 lap race gets underway at 15.00hrs local time (19.00hrs GMT).

Álvaro Bautista:
“This was my first time around here on a MotoGP bike and it was very different from the 250 – especially the first corner because you go in there very fast. I used this practice very much as a learning session and to get my reference points sorted for the rest of the weekend. I need to get more rear grip from the bike because when I put on the gas in the middle of the corner I feel that the bike is sliding too much. Also the entry to the corner is not what I want, because if I enter quick I am unable to turn the bike how I want to and I lose too much time. Tomorrow we will work on these things and although we know it will be hard work I think we can improve the bike and I also know I need to improve myself as well.”

Tom O’Kane – Álvaro Bautista’s Crew Chief:
“We used the new chassis in Álvaro’s bike today, but we didn’t make as big a step as we expected to when we swapped to the softer compound tyre. For tomorrow we will be working a lot on rear grip because Álvaro is struggling to get the feel he wants all the way through the turns and to get the best out of the soft tyre. We are really hoping to improve the bike on corner entry, because some of the corners tighten up a lot here and we really need to make the bike turn much better. Overall though we are pleased with Álvaro’s first day at Indianapolis and now he’s got this session under his belt I am sure he will be much stronger tomorrow and for the race on Sunday.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP