To be prepared for the three races that will take place on the circuit dedicated to Marco Simoncelli, we asked Marco Grana, technical director of the Sic58 Squadra Corse team, to explain the characteristics of the Misano circuit and how to ride the MotoE on this track.
“Misano is a beautiful and extremely technical racetrack. Turn one is critical at the start when, after the green light, there is a risk of contact between the riders. There are two lines available, one wider and one narrower and this leads to the risk of contacts in the change of direction towards turn two. During the race, turn one does not require excessive braking, riders enter quite fast while maintaining a good speed to get to turn two. This curve is narrow, but it is important to keep enough speed up to curve three and four (Rio curve). In turn three you have to be very careful because it is easy to go wide and put the wheels on the green zone and get penalized."
“Turn four is one of the slowest on the circuit and you need to have a stable bike under braking. It is a curve that closes and in qualifying you should have a common trajectory with the next one while during the race it is a point where you can try to overtake. At the exit of curve five you have to stay tight on the right side of the track to prepare for the fast change of direction to corner six. This curve is very fast and you to maintain a very precise line; if you make a mistake in the preparation of this curve, the consequence is to go wide on the green zone with consequent penalty. After a short straight, riders arrive at the “Quercia” curve which is a point for overtaking for all categories. Here you can make two trajectories: to overtake you can enter narrow and then widen at the exit or, which is the most effective trajectory, keep a line a little wide at the inlet, go to the apex and then take advantage of the acceleration on the exit until the “Tramonto” curve."
“This is a very characteristic point of the Misano circuit that can be ride in various ways, it is a wide curve where you brake at right lean angle, and where you can try to overtake. The important thing here, however, is to have a lot of grip at the exit and open the throttle as soon as possible because from there you enter the fastest part of the Misano circuit. This is a long straight which includes the famous "Curvone", an extremely fast curve that is difficult to do at full throttle with MotoE; you need a lot of feeling with the bike and it's easy to lose the rear tyre’s grip and end up on the green zone beyond the kerb. Once past the "Curvone" you enter a sequence of curves (twelve and thirteen) leading to the “Carro” curve (fourteen). The twelve does not involve great difficulty while the thirteen is fast and it is difficult to find the right apex. This curve is important to be well prepared for the fourteen which is a critical overtaking point, especially on the last lap because from there until the finish line it is difficult to overtake."
“At curve fourteen it is difficult to find the right compromise between braking and speed; it is important to exit fast from the corner for the last two corners. The first of these two curves does not present any particular difficulty while in the last one the bike moves under braking because riders arrive with a not optimal line from the previous curve and they need to correct it while braking. Once in the last corner you need to control the bike well to go fast out of the corner towards the finish line, but you have to be careful not to touch the green zone on the exit. Overtaking at this point is extremely difficult because, by choosing an inside line, you do not exit with sufficient speed on the final straight.
The choice of set-up for this circuit is not easy: you can set an extremely stable bike to gain at the braking points (Rio, Quercia, Tramonto and Carro) or have a stable bike in the fast sectors, especially at the “Curvone” where if you close the throttle you lose a lot of time."
“News of this year is the new asphalt. In the last years Misano was a critical track for the small grip, especially with the wet, also because of the proximity to the sea. The new asphalt certainly has higher grip in all track conditions, and we won't have to worry about potholes anymore as in the past years. With the new asphalt and the improvements made to the bike compared to last year we expect lower lap times. Our goal is certainly to bring Mattia on the podium as we did last year but this time we want to gain the highest step."
Here you can find more information about the performance of the MotoE on the Misano track.
To be updated on MotoE World Cup, subscribe to Epaddock's Whatsapp broadcast and receive all our news on your mobile phone in real time: find out how here.