Brendan Roberts

www.brendan-roberts.com

www.daremake.com

You have arrived in the World Superbike Championship after having won the World Superstock 1000 Championship last year riding the Ducati 1098 for the Junior Team.
What the differences between the two bikes?

The biggest difference between the two motorcycles is the tyres, to get the confidence to use the extra grip has been difficult to learn so far this year. The Ducati’s engine and suspension are surprisingly similar to the superstock machine from 2008.

There are many competitive riders as well as the official teams lined up, however, both Jakub Smrz and Regis Laconi showed there is also space for private teams. From Valencia the first engine updates, do you think the gap between the official team and private teams will rise or maybe you believe the private Ducati team could progress here?

I believe the updates for the factory teams will help a little, but some other teams are already on well developed motorcycles so you will see some teams move a step forward while others will stay the same. From seeing the results of both Kuba and Regis, it gives hope to all private teams, even other manufactures with the results of Leon Haslam from Phillip Island. This makes me more determined to reach the level of where I know I can be, nothing is ever easy and especially with the number of fast riders in this year’s championship, I have so much to learn but persistence will pay off.

The Guandalini Team are aiming high with organisationand structure and this year have chosen to employ, other than Smrz, another young promising rider like yourself. What are your impressions of the team?

When I first met Mirko Guandalini and some team members at the workshop in January I got the feeling of a determined team with a friendly family environment. They have all been right there giving me words of advice when I’ve needed it, which has been very helpful. All my mechanics have been awesome and we get along great, we laugh and joke when the time is right and work when we need to also.

The fact to have an experienced man like Pierfrancesco Chili helping you, do you believe it could help you to improve with your racing? How are you feeling right now with him?

Frankie has been a big help to me, the words he says during a session have helped me in the focus of what I need to do. A man of Frankie’s caliber you will always learn from, he has so much experience that if I learn a little from him ill improve immensely. 

You have a team-mate who is tough and motivated and seems you are quite tight-knit, what are your thoughts on your new team-mate?

Kuba and I talk openly about all our issues with the circuit and settings, which I really like, in the past I’ve either had communication problems or team mates that were not willing to share information. I knew Kuba before coming together in Team Guandalini, but our friendship has certainly grown this year.

Now to Europe and to circuits which you know away from Phillip Island and Qatar, last year you dominated in the Superstocks in Valencia qualifying sessions and race, are you hoping for a good result here at the weekend?

This I can only hope for, but it is not certain as there is many experienced riders going to a circuit they would know very well just like myself. I believe Valencia will be easier as I know the circuit and I can concentrate on settings from the first session rather than learning where I need to go. The result is a difficult thing to say, but I have some personal goals I would like to achieve so this is my main aim. 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 9:59 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.