Grand Premio de Catalunya

Circuit Information

By the time the GP circus makes a second trip of the season to Spain the pace is hotting up and the tough are showing their mettle. The race takes place only one week after the Italian round; the season is getting serious.

The 4.727 km (2.937-mile) track was built for both F1 and motorcycle GP racing, and this introduces a special complication for riders and technicians. The huge braking forces generated by the cars causes the tarmac to distort on the corner entries. Historically, this washboard effect has made things difficult for the suspension engineers and even more so for the riders.

Interestingly, the MotoGP machines clock higher top speeds on the long pit straight than the F1 cars, which are heavily encumbered by the enormous downforce created by their wings and bodywork.

The track has few really slow corners, and the sweeping bends are made all the more difficult by changing gradients as the circuit runs up and down the hillside overlooking the massive pit and paddock complex. The medium/fast Campsa corner leading onto the back straight, for example, sits atop the crest of a rise and is unsighted. Although the modern layout might at first appear somewhat sterile, in fact this is one of the more challenging circuits from a technical standpoint, and a fine arena for high-class racing.

Gran Premio Alice d'Italia

Circuit Information

The historic circuit of Mugello would be full of dramatic atmosphere even if they were racing tractors. When the Italian heroes of the MotoGP class join battle, lifting their front wheels at more than 340 km/h (211 mph) on the front straight and jostling for position round the swooping final corner, then it is a really special day.

The circuit itself is magnificent, its 5.245 kilometres (3.259 miles) sweeping across both flanks of a steep valley. As with Brno, long medium/fast corners lead one into the next, making overtaking difficult; while the straight sees some of the highest terminal speeds of the year.

It is a challenge for both riders and machines: one of only a handful of tracks remaining where the 990cc MotoGP four-strokes run for any length of time with the throttles pinned wide open.

Italian riders have claimed more GP victories than any other nation. Mugello shows that a fine national obsession with motorcycle racing tradition is alive and kicking.

Grand Prix Alice de France

Circuit Information

The roads around Le Mans have seen motor racing since 1906, but today's circuit dates back to 1923 when the 24 Hour race was first run over a 17 km course which ran almost into the city of Le Mans. A magnificent race control tower, permanent offices and pit complex were unveiled in 1991, together with the short GP Bugatti track. Spectators are mostly confined to the section bewteen the Ford Curves and Tetre Rouge.

Le Mans is a circuit made up of a number of second gear hairpins linked together by a series of long straights, with only the occasional chicane breaking up the run to the next hairpin. A design of the past, the French circuit causes little concern for engineers regarding set-up. Turns three and five are the most likely passing points and all efforts will be focused towards finding stability under brakes in these areas.

Grand Prix of China

Circuit Information

The event is held at the ultra-modern Shanghai International Circuit, which was bankrolled by the government to the tune of $325 million and surpasses even Sepang in state-of-the-art splendour. The facility will certainly provide a striking backdrop, with gleaming, futuristic architecture including two giant steel-and-glass “wings” 140 metres wide which bestride the start-finish straight.

The circuit itself was designed by German Hermann Tilke, who also penned Sepang and the new Istanbul circuit that will host the Turkish GP in October. Most of Tilke’s creations feature a combination of long straights and awkward compound corners; they tend to produce good racing, even if they might not get the riders’ pulses racing in the manner of Assen or Phillip Island.

Shanghai’s 5.300 km (3.293-mile) layout includes a long, 1.175 km (0.73-mile) back straight that offsets the sinuous nature of the rest of the track. Top speeds should comfortably exceed 200 mph, but most of the corners will entail the use of the lower gears, so average speeds will probably be in the medium range.

The lap starts with a long decreasing radius right-hander that will require the brakes to be applied all the way through the corner while the bike is under load, making it tricky to maintain good balance. That feeds directly into a tight left, followed by a fast stretch to a right-hand hairpin. A sweeping S-bend provides some relief before a tight double left-hander.

After another short burst it’s hard braking again for a 90 degree left, which opens out into a long banked right-hander that turns through more than 180 degrees before spitting bikes out onto the back straight. Exit speed will be critical here, but getting the power down under simultaneous hard acceleration and cornering will not be easy, presenting a similar problem to the final two turns at Estoril.

Grande Premio de Portugal

Circuit Information

Estoril is a track of extremes. The 4.182 km (2.599-mile) lap has one of the slowest average speeds of the year, with a lap record averaging just 153 km/h (95 mph). But in terms of maximum speed, only Mugello saw the MotoGP bikes go any faster than the 341.8 km/h (212.4 mph) recorded by Max Biaggi’s Honda last year.

That tells you a lot about the nature of the track. The fast bits are very fast; the slow bits very slow.

There is a long straight entered via a fast corner where the bikes can stretch their legs, but it ends with very hard braking for a tight right-hand corner, and the rest of the lap is slow and highly technical. -->

The former host of the Portuguese Formula 1 Grand Prix joined the MotoGP calendar in 2000, a welcome addition to the three Spanish rounds. The track, a short drive out of the capital Lisbon, also joined the testing calendar at the same time. Teams who joined the mass tests there before the start of the year quickly found out about one of the track’s special features – very high coastal winds off the nearby Atlantic ocean making a difficult lap more difficult still.

Back at the circuit, there are a number of good places to watch the art of MotoGP racing. The final fast corner, taken at full lean accelerating up through the gearbox with an exit speed of more than 200 km/h (124 mph), is a particular challenge; while the corkscrew whirls of the ultra-tight uphill chicane section require a completely different facet of racing skill.

Gran Premio de España

Circuit Information

Jerez was especially built to host the Formula 1 Grand Prix from 1986. Recent modifications to the Paddock and pit box areas of the circuit have turned it into one of the best equipped circuits in the World Championship.

Regarding the track, the new asphalt laid down in 2003 has solved the problem of the famous bumps. The only bumps remaining now are on the two fastest corners of the circuit, the Alex Criville corner and the Enzo Ferrari corner. These two corners are taken in fourth gear at more than 150 Km/h and with significant lean on the bike.

Jerez is a circuit where normally relatively hard settings are used in both the front and rear suspension. The riders come into the two hairpin bends on the circuit, the Dry Sack and the final bend leading onto the start/finish straight at great speed because they are preceded by two straights so the front suspension must be fitted with hard springs to stop it bottoming out. In the rear, due to the fact that there are many rapid corners, the suspension must be fitted with hard springs to keep the suspension rigid and to avoid the bike dipping too much.

Tyres are not normally a critical problem unless, as has happened on previous occasions, the temperatures reach higher than normal levels as this can produce problems in tyre performance.

Qatar Grand Prix

Circuit information

Located 20 km north from Doha, the Losail circuit set a milestone in the 2004 season, hosting the first Motorcycling World Championship Grand Prix in the Middle East. The first stone was laid in December 2003 and the track was built in record time. It cost 58 million dollars and its infrastructures fulfil the highest quality and safety standards, meeting the homologation requirements of the FIM. The first rider to lap on the Qatar layout was Randy Mamola, who made an exhibition on a Ducati at the official inauguration of the circuit in July 2004.

The 5,380 metres long circuit is made up by a series of linked, high-speed corners. On its 1.068 km straight, the bikes reach speeds of 330 km/h. Its 16 corners 10 right-handers and 6 left-handers, make it very important to get a good set-up of the bike's front end. Although it was designed and built to become a fluid, technical and safe track, the Losail circuit is located in the middle of the desert, implying lots of sand. In order to fight-off the sand on the track, the designers built a perimeter of artificial grass to stop the sand from being blown onto the asphalt. The fact of being completely new asphalt, dirty, without any rubber on the surface and the inevitable sand, the lack of grip played one of the leading roles in the 2004 event, together with the high temperatures, around 40 degrees Celsius, and the high humidity level. Fortunately, since no single-seater races are staged in Losail, it doesn't have the typical bumps created by them; although it has large run-off areas, which were with no doubt designed looking forward to staging Formula 1 races in the future.

With its many twists and turns the Losail circuit demands a well-balanced bike that is capable of quick changes of direction.