Team Suzuki Press Office – October 3. The Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand, is the newest facility to host a world-class motorcycling event, and will be the scene of the 15th round of the MotoGP championship. The event’s addition sees the number of races this year rise to 19 compared to the usual 18. The hot and humid weather, similar to that experienced in Malaysia, will make this weekend tough for all the riders.
Team SUZUKI ECSTAR, as well as all other MotoGP teams, had the chance to test here in February, thus allowing the riders Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins to acquaint themselves with the layout. However, weather conditions will be very different compared with 8 months ago, thus requiring the riders to adapt quickly to the new circumstances.
The early stages of the race weekend will see both riders re-familiarise themselves with the layout and the track. Rins and Iannone experienced opposing feelings after the winter test: while the Spaniard liked the track and could make solid improvements quickly, the Italian struggled more when it came to finding a good feeling with the layout, and is now hoping that the improvements and development done with the GSX-RR since February will allow him to find better performance.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“We go to a new track for us that has been added to the calendar only this year, so it will be interesting to see how we can adapt to this situation. We tested here in February, like all the other teams, and the outcome was different for the two riders; Alex liked the track, while Andrea was still uncertain about his performance. We arrive in a totally different conditions compared to the ones we had in the winter test, as the bike has improved during the 14 races (and several tests) done so far and also both riders could improve and develop their feeling with the bike. In addition, we arrive here after a solid race in Aragon, where we not only got the podium with Andrea but also Alex did a very competitive race with fourth place. This will be the first of a 4-race mini series outside Europe, with many struggles being so far from home with different climate and also time differences, so it’s important to start on the right foot and be consistent in chasing the top positions in every session and the race.”
Andrea Iannone
“I am curious to see how the improvements we’ve done so far in the machine and in my feeling can help me on this circuit. When we came here in February for the test I didn’t get very positive feelings about the layout, but for sure we are in a very different conditions compared to 8 months ago. A couple of weeks ago in Aragon we scored a positive result with the third place so I hope we can start from there to work consistently this weekend and have a positive beginning to the fly-away races.”
Alex Rins
“I had very good feelings at the Buriram circuit in February when we came here for the pre-season tests, so that leaves me confident for a positive weekend in Thailand. In addition, we have grown a lot during the season and we’ve seen that now we can be competitive with consistency, hopefully this will help approaching this new race. The layout is nice for me and our performances are getting better and better as we have been able to demonstrate in the recent races, so we could have all the ingredients for a positive weekend if we will be able to approach step-by-step preparing properly for the race from the first session on Friday onwards.”
Circuit Info:
Designed by German architect Hermann Tilke, the Buriram International Circuit opened in 2014 and will see MotoGP making its debut this season. Located around 410km northeast from the country’s capital of Bangkok, the town of Buriram in the Buriram province literally translates into “city of happiness”, and its typically hot and humid weather is a key feature of its Southeast Asian location. The 4.554km layout incorporates 12 turns with a 1000 metre long straight.
