Why isn’t Yamaha using the new Öhlins forks that were introduced and tested during the Brno test? According to William Favero, Yamaha’s Communications Manager the decision was based on the fact that Öhlins is unable to supply more that two sets per team this year.
Speaking to Giovanni Zamagni of moto.
it Favero said that Masahiko Nakajima Yamaha’s M1 Project Leader has a list, which is basically the “minimum technical requirement” which defines the number of parts that his riders need to have to race.
Yamaha according the their specs needs six sets of forks, three for each rider, while Öhlins is currently able to supply only two sets of the new forks and cannot guarantee a minimun allocation to satisfy Yamaha’s requests, so the Japanese manager decided not to have Lorenzo and Rossi use the new forks this season and put them on the 2011 materials list.
Jorge Lorenzo did try the new forks during the Brno test and said: “I don’t like so much at the moment.
But maybe we will try again.
” while Valentino Rossi did not, which upset the Italian who said, “I didn’t try the fork because Yamaha didn’t give me to try.
I was very upset about this because we have eight races to go, not two or three.
They said to me that they don’t use this fork in the next races because it is a fork for 2011.
”Now this story has been finally laid to rest.
