Mika Kallio faces challenges in Jerez tests

The second round of Moto2 winter tests took place this week in Jerez, Spain. These three days did not offer the best possible support for Mika Kallio, who is preparing for his 14th consecutive season in the world series of road racing. Kallio is still trying to familiarise himself with the new bike and new team, and during these tests no major development took place, since they were still struggling with finding the correct the settings of the bike. In the combined results of these nine sessions, Kallio was left on 14th place, 1,1 seconds behind of pacesetter Johann Zarco. 

 -We did not expect such huge problems with the set-up of the bike, and in my opinion, this is pretty much the lowest of lows on possible test performance. No crashes for that matter, but there were no improvements at all due to a bizarre mistake on front settings. For some reason, we had received wrong information which we never double checked and relying too blindly on that, we never discovered the true source of the problems until the debriefing of the last session, during which it was obviously too late. The set-up of the bike was completely out of line during all these days and therefore now that we know what was wrong, we need to start all over, thus wasting the work we have done during these sessions in Valencia and Jerez, a frustrated Kallio stated. 

 -We had difficulties with the bike from day one and I never got the proper feeling with the front, which caused me problems with braking to corners and generally relying on what I was doing. The feeling was not there and I could not push in the needed way, because there was no trusting the bike. During the second day of the tests we changed the frame of 2015 to an older version from last year, which helped a little, but did not solve the actual issues, Kallio admitted. 

 -It is a huge shame we discovered the actual reason for the technical difficulties too late, as the Moto2-serie is so even-leveled, and it kills me to have given such an advantage to the other riders, since we practically wasted two tests and are now back to square one. On the other hand, now we know what to do in the following test sessions, a determined Kallio declared. 

 Even though the start of the season has been challenging, the experienced rider is confident that the issues will be tackled before the first race in Qatar. 

 -I am sure we’ll get the bike working in a desired way before the races begin, we have hopefully additional private tests before the last IRTA-test in Jerez and there is still enough time to fix what we did not figure out earlier. 

 The official Moto2-tests will continue in Jerez on the 17-19th of March. 

 Picture: mikakallio.com

 For additional pictures, kindly visit the media-section of mikakallio.com.

« Back