The material needed for the races in Europe is transported on the team`s trucks and are driven by team members. Normally the trucks arrive at the circuit on a Tuesday.
Wednesday mornings are dedicated to washing the trucks and assembling the pits with all the advertising panels, toolboxes and everything else that may be needed to repair and maintain the bikes over the GP weekend.
On Wednesday afternoons work starts on preparing for the real work that gets underway on the Thursday, and this may include changing the gearbox ratios and the set up on the suspension, as well as substituting the engines or taking it apart to give it an overhaul.
The first tyre selection for the race is also made on the Thursday.
Friday mornings is when the training starts. The first is at 10am. We are at the circuit two hours beforehand to carry out the final adjustments and to get ready for the training session.
In this first session we get our first contact with the motorbike and the riders does the same with the track. So we all check to see whether the tyre selection for the race that we made the day before is the right one. This year the regulations have changed and we can only use 14 rear tyres and 17 at the front, over the three days of the GP. That is why the wrong decision at this time can affect the race result.
After the first training session the mechanics have 3 hours before the second session of the day starts to modify the set up on the bike so the rider can try to lower the lap times.
At this moment it is very important for the rider to be able to communicate the sensations he has out on the track. Depending on his sensitivity and his explanation it is either easier or more difficult to find a solution to any possible problems. The motorbike has an infinite number of possible set ups, which together with the ability of the rider to explain what is really happening when he is on the bike means that this is make or break time. In this sense Dani has a great feeling and so knows exactly what he needs at any time.
Saturday morning`s work is more or less the same as on the Friday, finishing off the adjusments on the bike and finding the tyre that will stand up to all the laps the rider will do in the race.
Training on the Saturday afternoon is only for organising the grid classification. During the first half hour the bike continues to be set up and in the final half hour we mount classification tyres so that the rider can set a good time and so be as close to the front of the grid as possible.
The tyre manufacturers have some very soft compounds called “for classification”, which can only be used for one lap at top speed.
Sunday mornings are for the warm up, 20 minutes long, a session that helps to bed down the bike`s set up and the new components down for the race itself.
We are a factory team which means that there are quite a lot of people working for Dani: engineers and mechanics.
During the training sessions there are two people that speak directly to Dani: the Chief Mechanic and telemetrics expert.
The Chief Mechanic interprets the explanations given by Dani and seeks solutions talking to the technician responsible for the suspension. The telemetrics expert informs about the state of the bike at all times when it is out on the track.
We the mechanics are the ones who make the changes to the bike so as to solve any problems. We try to follow a work routine during the training sessions so that we can do our work as fast as possible.
We are a group of people from many countries: Japanese, Austrians, Brits, New Zealanders, French, Italians and Spanish. We speak in English to communicate with each other. Dani is just another member of the team, the most important, but all the work done by everybody, however small, makes each race into a battle, where we have to get over any and all the obstacles that are in our way.
