Here we go – a talking heads line up with all riders from the Honda MotoGP teams giving their thoughts on the forthcoming season.

The 2010 MotoGP pre-season has been a bit of a washout for Honda; Dani Pedrosa has not looked strong on his Repsol Honda despite his first injury-free pre-season in ages, 250cc graduate Marco Simoncelli has been stuck at the back of the grid or has been seen landing on his head after struggling to control his Gresini Honda, the returning Marco Melandri has struggled to find speed, and Randy de Puniet and Andrea Dovizioso have looked like the strongest hopes for the manufacturer so far – not something that anyone would have predicted. Or as Julian Ryder might say: “That wasn’t in the script”. To be fair, de Puniet is arguably one of the most improved riders in recent seasons and totally deserves to be regular in the Top 10.

Anyway, in summary Honda’s pre-season is far from living up to “The Power Of Dreams” – more like a “Bad Nights Sleep And A Wet Bed”.

Honda Riders talk MotoGP 2010:

Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso:
“I’m really looking forward to the first race and after the long winter break and testing sessions it’s a very good feeling to heading into a race weekend again. Me are the team are very motivated and happy with the work done in the pre-season. We have moved in the right direction and have seen a big improvement through testing, and this gives us a lot of confidence for the start of the season. On Friday we will start with the base setting from the last test session we had here in Qatar a few weeks ago and work on it further through the course of the race weekend. The gap from us to the fastest riders has come down, but we still need to work really hard because we’re not close enough yet. The Qatar race is special and unique of course because it is at night. Having said that, once you get used to the floodlit circuit, it soon becomes “normal” to race in these conditions. The thing to consider carefully and to be careful about is the humidity, which is very high here at the time of the race. We’re ready for Round One and I’m really excited to go racing again.”

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa:
“It’s time for the first race of the season and we go back to Qatar this weekend ready to put in maximum effort to do as well as possible at the opening round. There’s no need to get carried away with the nerves or expectations because this would be only detrimental for us. We will stay calm, be very focused and simply concentrate as hard as possible in the practice sessions in order to find a good setting for the race. Technically, this circuit requires very precise bike set-up, with good agility and good straight-line speed – these two factors are very important at Losail. Two years ago we made an incredible step forward between the test and the race weekend and we have to do it once again – we know it can happen. I’m starting the season without physical problems, which means that the situation is much better than in the past, so we will work hard and do the maximum to get the best result possible in Qatar. I fully trust in the team around me and I also believe in myself, so I’m feeling positive going into this weekend.”

LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet:
“I’m happy and ready for practice to start. We made a big step forward at the Qatar test and I was able to set my fastest lap times on race tyres. I have a good feeling with this bike and we have a good base set up to start the weekend.”

San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Marco Melandri:
“The Losail circuit in Qatar is one I like and racing at night has its attraction. Testing didn’t go particularly well but we still have some things to try and I am quite confident about my race pace. I think a lot of riders will struggle to match their pace from testing and if we can just improve a little and get a decent grid position then we can get involved in a group in the race that will allow me to take home a good result. I had a great race in Qatar in 2005, when I fought with Valentino until the final lap, attacking him for the lead with three corners to go but running wide and having to settle for second place as a result. I also had a good race on the 800 in 2007 even though the bike still wasn’t up to scratch so I still believe we can have a good race this Sunday – it wouldn’t be the first time we have taken a good result after a difficult preseason. The track is well suited to my riding style so I’m keen to see how well we can do.”

San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Marco Simoncelli:
“I was hoping I’d be in better shape ahead of my MotoGP debut but testing hasn’t gone in the best possible way, especially Sepang. We have work to do and since I last rode the bike we have re-jigged our ideas a little and come up with some ways to improve things. We also have faith in the work done by Honda in Japan and we’re hopeful they can bring us something new that can help us. I’m obviously not going out to win the first race but I’m still travelling to Qatar in confident mood and I’m sure I can improve on my performance from the test. I don’t dislike Losail and I am always comfortable riding there. I am a little worried about the fact we’re racing at night because of the humidity that seems to settle at a certain point of the evening, especially in some of the right-handers, making them somewhat dangerous. Maybe bringing the race forward an hour would be a good solution. If not then we will just adapt to it and try to bring home the best result possible.”

Interwetten Honda MotoGP Team’s Hiroshi Aoyama:
“I am looking forward to start the new season in MotoGP class. Qatar is not my favorite track and the conditions are not always perfect, also riding in the dark is very unusual and I will see how I can cope with this new situation. We still need to find a good set up for the race conditions as what we have until now was for the testing and it was still not perfect. I need to gain more confidence with the new bike and learn a lot, but I hope we can have a good result in Qatar and maybe gain our first points in the MotoGP world championship 2010.”

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