Clockwise from main image: Toni Elias back on track with Honda; With Fausto Gresini, Alex De Angelis and the 2009 Honda RC212V ; Talking tactics with the team ; Everything has its place in the Gresini garage - some of the Castrol products that the San Carlo Honda Gresini team uses; The man himself
Elias returns After a year away with the rival ducati squad, motogp star Toni elias has returned to the castrol-backed Team san carlo honda gresini squad. but what motivated the spaniard toreturn ?
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race winner with the Castrol-backed Honda Gresini outfit in 2007, exciting young Spaniard Toni Elias has returned to the team where he enjoyed his most successful seasons in MotoGP and believes that riding a factory Honda for the first time will help him fulfil his title ambitions. Elias’ first stint with the team began in 2006. Then only 23, he had already spent a season in MotoGP with the Fortuna Yamaha team, which was enough to persuade Gresini’s eponymous team boss Fausto Gresini to give him a shot alongside 2005 title runner-up Marco Melandri. He raced to ninth overall that year, but it was a stunning ride at Estoril that really raised eyebrows in the paddock. Lying third as he crossed the line to start the final lap of the Portuguese Grand Prix, Elias
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produced a masterclass in white-knuckle riding. In the most scintillating lap of the 2006 season the lead changed four times in that final minute and a half, during which Elias passed Kenny Roberts Jr once, and Valentino Rossi twice, ultimately beating the Italian to take the win by a mere 0.002s. “There were several nerve-wracking moments on the final laps,” explains Elias. “But I held my nerve and shadowed Valentino. I still didn’t know whether I had got it on the line. It is like a dream.” With such good memories of his time at Gresini, and having spent a difficult 2008 season with the Alice Ducati team, Elias welcomed the opportunity to reignite a racing relationship that brought him 120 championship points and four podium finishes. “During the 2008 season I continued to have very good relationship with Fausto and everyone at the Gresini team, and I joined up with the team again in Valencia at the end of last season,” says Elias. “We had some good results together during my time here and at
the end of last year Fausto and Honda approached me with what I saw as a really big opportunity – to ride with Gresini again, this time on a factory Honda. It was perfect, I wanted to come back to Gresini and I have a lot of belief in what we can now achieve. “Coming back into this team has been like coming back home. It is like a family for me and having those good relationships really matters when you are pushing hard in MotoGP. The team understands me and believes in me and that makes me stronger out on the track.” There have also been more practical benefits to Elias’ return. Much of his engineering team from 2007 remains at Gresini, as does his race and test data from two years with the team. So although the 2009 factory RC212V is a very different beast to the 2007 Honda Elias last rode, he has the advantage of working with engineers that know his needs down to the finest detail. “Everyone in the team has helped me a lot to settle back in and start working hard right
Castrol and Honda again. Every bike has its difficulties, but with Honda things happen a lot easier, and Castrol have always been a great partner for us, supplying so much for the bike brake fluid to engine oil and even bike polish. Together I’m sure we will get good results. “We have technical updates every race and non-stop improvements from us and from HRC. First we want to be competitive, then on the podium, then win races and finally push for the title. I have returned to a Castrol-backed Honda team to win things by improving step by step. We will always be positive and always be pushing.”
“Coming back into this team has been like coming back home, its like a family for me” away. In particular though, being able to come straight back into the garage and work with Fabrizio Cecchini again, who was my old chief engineer has been fantastic. In the two years we worked together before, we developed a mutually trusting relationship, and we understand the feeling and method of working together that was always very successful. “This bike is a very new challenge compared to the 2007 model and we are having to work very hard to get the best from it. They are like day and night. The frame and the engine are very different. We approach our work calmly though, because we know that I will gradually have to adapt myself to a new bike with new tyres and that means changing my riding style. Each year bikes change so adapting for engineers and riders is non-stop.” The other major difference for 2009 is that for the first time, Elias will have a factorybacked Honda underneath him, which means the Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) will be working closely with the team, supplying new, improved parts as they become available. “I am very happy to be working with
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