Kallio hungry for success in Barcelona

The Moto2 season of 2015 will see it’s next GP take place on the track of Barcelona, Catalonia. The failures, crashes and bad luck of previous races has now been forgotten and Kallio and his team, Italtrans, are well prepared for a heated fight under the Spanish sun. 

 -Everything is pretty much ready for this weekend. The previous GP in Mugello was a big catastrophe, from a personal point of view and from the team’s perspective as well. My teammate and I were both forced to retire from the race, when first Morbidelli was hit, he fell, and I crashed when colliding with his abandoned bike, not being able to avoid either the vehicle or the rider. Happily we are both ok, but there was a lot of bad luck with us that weekend. This is something that happens at times while racing and the best thing to do after a race like that is to forget about it and shift your energy towards the future, an experienced Kallio pointed out. 

 -After the GP of Mugello we were able to enjoy a few days of testing in Aragon and the conditions suited us well, as they resemble pretty closely the ones at Barcelona track. During that period we discovered some small improvements while testing things we’ve not had time to try during race weekends. The balance of the bike is now different and settings have been played around with quite a bit. The changes performed seem to help somewhat with the major front grip issue we have been battling with throughout the season, though now I have to change my riding style to adapt to the alterations, Kallio revealed. 

 Kallio’s season beginning has been full of setbacks and both the rider and the team have suffered major disappointments due to the mutual high expectations set towards the championship this year. After the first three races of the season neither the rider or his team were happy with the achieved results, so they decided to go ahead with dramatic setting changes for the bike. Unfortunately this project did not end well and the risk backfired. 

 -The rider needs to possess strict confidence towards the bike in order to get the most out of himself on track. If the trust is lost, the rhythm and feeling disappears and riding becomes a struggle. We ride on the limits all the time, so if you are suspicious of the bike’s behaviour you can’t push enough. Self confidence is lost meanwhile, when you try your hardest and nothing works. After the tests I feel a lot better and I aim to build up the lost sense of trust and confidence by riding   as many laps during the free practices as possible, a still positive Kallio described. 

 The never ending debate concerning the choice of chassis has now come to a conclusion and Kallio will finish the season riding with the 2015 bike. It seems that the issues faced are not related to the chassis and that being the case, Kallio and his team have decided to continue working with the current, new model. Kallio is ready to take on the challenge on the familiar track of Circuit de Catalunya and starts the race weekend with good spirits. 

 -There are a lot of young and talented riders in the series who are able to clock really fast singular laps, but my strength lies in competition situations when I’m able to use my experience and mental strength to make steady laps in the race. I just watched a video of last year’s race here and saw myself fighting for positions 3-5, ending up fourth. The screen displayed a very disappointed man, for even then I knew I could do better. This year has been something indescribable, but I hope for a good result in qualifying so I could challenge the top guys on Sunday, Kallio finished. 

 

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