If there is a coach with experience and who is respected in the World Cup paddock, that is Santi Mulero, that since it started in the championship in 1980 with Ángel Nieto’s Siroko project, it soon became the right and left hand of Sito Pons, both in his days as a driver and as a team owner, and an outstanding student of maestro Antonio Cobas. Few know that it was he who told Pons, after visiting all the racing chassis manufacturers, to bet on Kalex for his Moto2 project, a brand that is now coming to MotoGP to save the embarrassment of a Honda that alone It’s not as competitive as it should be. Speaking to AS from the paddock of Le Mans, the master Mulero, because he is already one too, tells of the role that the chassis plays in the performance of a motorcycle and the reasons why he believed in Kalex in his day as Honda does now.
“In the past, a chassis was simply the support for the engine, the wheels and the man on top. This has been evolving and more in the world of racing. So, the chassis, in addition to adapting to the technical characteristics of the engine, the tires, the suspensions and all that, is what makes the poor man on top, the rider, feel comfortable on the bike and can go fast. Before the bikes had almost no lean, at most 20 degrees or 35 degrees, with those Dunlop triangular tires, but now the tires are different, with very different profiles and with leans that go up to 55 or 60 degrees. C.hen you’re so prone or tilted, the frame is what makes the bike turn or not turn. Apart from the fact that you can play with the geometries and the weight distribution, there comes a time when you have to play with the torsion and flexibility that this chassis has. And when I say chassis I put the chassis and the swingarm in the same package”, begins by saying a Mulero who understands that the work of evolution is infinite.
In this sense, the technical director of Pons Wego Los40, that of Arón Canet and Sergio García in Moto2, adds the following: “You have to be in constant evolution and always in accordance with the tire, which is the first thing that hits the ground and is as if it were part of the chassis. What happens is that the manufacturer of the tire imposes it on you by the owner of the championship. Before, when there was an open bar, it was fantastic, because there were several brands, but now everything is the same and if there is a change of tires it is for everyone. They always seek their safety and what is most economical and profitable for them, and that sometimes goes against the pilot who wants to go faster. That is why the chassis has to evolve so much. The compounds of the tires now have nothing to do with those of before, when they were made of rubber”.
If they gave him a choice for his motorcycle between having the best engine or the best chassis on the grid, the Catalan would answer like this: “You need the best engine and the best chassis, because one thing without the other is not understood. If you put an engine that does not run, it will not put the chassis in crisis. And vice versa, without a good chassis you won’t have good traction or turn well despite having a good engine. You could only do drag racing.”
Mulero is delighted with Kalex’s entry into MotoGP via Honda, because his team believed in them before anyone else: “Kalex reached the World Championship in 2010, with the Moto2. When we ran out of the MotoGP team, Sito suggested that I create a new category and that his son, Axel, would race. It seemed perfect to me, because I find it fun to evolve new things. I visited all the chassis manufacturers there at the time and the one I liked the most was Alex (Baumgärtel) from Kalex. The reason? Because they were already really in the 21st century and had ideas like Antonio Cobas. Alex is a simple guy, with super clear ideas and he’s going with the march of evolution. That’s the one I was playing.”
And he concludes: “It is difficult for Mr. Honda to turn to someone from outside and who is not Japanese, because we already know what he is like, but they have gone to them for the work they have done in Moto2. They called us crazy for going with a manufacturer with experience in cars and not motorcycles, but they are the ones who have stayed in the category and Speed Up. I am very happy that Kalex has reached MotoGP”.
