From a press release issued by Alice Aprilia Racing Information:

Brazil GP, preview

The MotoGP World championships starts its non-European phase with an exotic race: the Brasilian GP that will take place next Saturday at the Nelson Piquet circuit in Rio de Janeiro. This is an important race for the Alice Aprilia Racing Team because the carioca circuit could bring out the potential of the RS Cube. A long straight (nearly 1 km) with 8 left corners and 4 right corners for the brazilian track: it seems that the features of this track are specially designed to intensify the qualities of the three cylinders made in Italy. Waiting for the race the team tested last week in Jerez de La Frontera. Colin Edwards and the test rider Marcellino Lucchi worked on the development of the new tyres provided by Michelin. Moreover they tested new regulations in order to improve the ignition system. In the mean time the bikes that will be used by Haga and Edwards already arrived in Brazil.

GIGI DALL’IGNA (Project Leader): “The work we made in Jerez through Lucchi and Edwards has been concentrated on the new front tyres created for us by Michelin: maybe we will be able to use them in Motegi. It’s a pity cause we can not use them for the next race in Rio but the delivery times are very tight. Moreover we have more power now with a better ignition control. The riders and the whole team worked well obtaining a good lap time: 1:42:3 of Edwards who is very motivated for the next race. We will do the best in Brazil as well trying to get a good result for Aprilia the riders and all the technical staff of this season”.

THE TRACK

Nelson Piquet- Rio de Janeiro: lenght 4.933 metres, equal to 3.065 miles.

Lap Record: 1:51.928 Tadayuki Okada (Honda 500 1997)

Pole: 1:51.058 Max Biaggi (Yamaha 2001)


More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

Brazilian Grand Prix
Jacarepagua, Brazil
18/19/20 September 2003

DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM TAKES OFF FOR RIO AND BEYOND
This week Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss embark upon the most gruelling stage of the 2003 MotoGP World Championship when they head south to Rio, the first of four ‘flyaway’ GPs over just five weekends. Two weeks later the action moves to Motegi in Japan, with races in Malaysia and Australia over subsequent weekends. The season concludes back in Europe, at Valencia in Spain, on November 2.

The entire Ducati Marlboro Team goes into this globetrotting tour in good spirits and confident of continuing to impress in its debut MotoGP campaign. Capirossi and Bayliss have grabbed the headlines ever since the season kicked off in Japan during April, the pair scoring one victory, three pole positions, seven podium finishes and ten front-row starts from the 11 races so far. Capirossi currently holds fourth overall in the points chase, Bayliss just one place behind which puts Ducati second in the Manufacturers’ World Championship and the Ducati Marlboro Team third in the MotoGP teams’ championship. All this from a new team and a manufacturer that had been out of Grand Prix racing for more than three decades…

LOGISTICS THE KEY DURING FOUR FLYAWAY GPs
The Ducati Marlboro Team has already proved itself capable of achieving winning performance in MotoGP’s European heartland; now the squad heads overseas for a demanding run of four ‘flyaway’ GPs during which logistical excellence is just as vital as machine performance.

The task of orchestrating riders, team members and a tonne of equipment as they crisscross the world from Brazil to Japan and from Malaysia to Australia is a mammoth endeavour. Nothing can be left to chance during this stage of the World Championship. The team must be prepared for all eventualities while competing up to 12,000 miles away from its base outside Bologna, Italy.

“Logistics are the key to these few events,” says Ducati Marlboro Team director Livio Suppo. “It’s a complicated process coordinating everything, and then there’s the extra stress of several long-haul flights, different time zones and so on. All in all, it’s a very physically and mentally demanding time for everyone in the team. Nevertheless we feel confident because the Desmosedici has proved itself to work pretty well whatever kind of racetrack we go to. We come to Rio from three straight podium finishes, so we plan to keep working in the usual way, even if we are a long, long way from home.”

Ducati Marlboro Team technical director Corrado Cecchinelli also understands the extra strains of racing on the other side of the world. “We have already proved ourselves in the Japanese and South African GPs,” he says. “But generally we are used to racing quite close to the factory, so in the case of having to work on the bike or some components, we can easily do that on Mondays with the mechanics and engineers that work from the factory in Borgo Panigale. But on this occasion, however, we are not able to do so.”

“I’ve seen some of the recent Rio GPs on TV, but that’s all. All I can say is that we will rely on the experience of Loris, as we’ve done at other circuits that are new to us. He should be able to give us some useful pointers, like a basic set-up for the gearbox. He says the track is dominated by long, fast corners and a fast straight, which sounds quite good for our bike. We will start with the bike set-up we used at Estoril, with a different gearbox, and go from there.”

CAPIROSSI LOOKS FORWARD TO FAST, OPEN RIO
Loris Capirossi arrives in Rio this week still fired up by his thrilling ride to third place at Estoril in Portugal two weeks ago. And the Ducati Marlboro Team rider believes that the fast and open nature of the Jacarepagua circuit will suit his Desmosedici even better than the tortuous Portuguese venue.

“We won’t really know how our bike will work at Rio until we get there, but the track is fast and open with an unbelievably quick main straight, which should really suit our machine,” says Capirossi, who tested alongside team-mate Troy Bayliss at Mugello, Italy, following the Marlboro Portuguese GP. “Everyone knows our bike is already at a very good level, and it keeps getting better. We have had a very strong engine since we started, while the latest chassis improvements have made the bike easier to ride. Rio is sometimes a difficult GP because the circuit can be very dirty, which complicates our set-up work, but I think we have as good a chance as anyone this weekend”.

Capirossi has enjoyed a remarkable run of qualifying and race performances so far this season. The former 125 and 250 World Champion scored the Ducati Marlboro Team’s debut MotoGP victory at June’s Marlboro Catalan GP and has scored two other podium finishes, at Suzuka and Estoril. He had also started from the front row at nine of 11 races.

BAYLISS FOCUSES ON RACING, NOT RIO
This weekend Troy Bayliss gets to race in South America for the first time in his career. But like any pro-racer, the Ducati Marlboro Team man will be focused on achieving the best possible result at Rio, rather than enjoying the sights of the renowned carnival city.

“I’ve never even seen South America before, but that’s not what I’ll be thinking about,” says the former World Superbike champ who is currently the top-placed MotoGP rookie of 2003 with three podiums and one front-row start behind him. “All I’ll be thinking about is the race because all I want to do is win races. Rio is just another racetrack to me – in one way they’re all the same – you’ve just got to get around them as quick as you can. So far this year we’ve gone better at some places than others, because we’re still learning. It’s hard work, we’ve had some good and some not-so-good results, and I’m hoping that all our hard work is really going to pay off next year when we’ll be able to use all the knowledge we’ve learned this season.”

In fact Bayliss does have something else to think about other than racing – wife Kim is due to give birth to their third child just a few weeks after the Rio GP. The couple are hoping that the birth will take place before Bayliss heads to Motegi in Japan at the start of October.

THE TRACK
The Jacarepagua circuit has been hosting rounds of the motorcycling World Championships on and off since the mid-nineties. The track staged its inaugural GP in September 1995, taking over from the original Brazilian GP venues of Goiania (which hosted the 1987, ’88 and ’89 Brazilian GPs) and Interlagos (which staged a one-off race in ’92). The ’96, ’97, ’99, 2000, 2001 and 2002 races at Jacarepagua were all run under the mantle of the Rio Grand Prix.

The circuit itself is fast and open, encouraging close racing; in fact only two of the seven premier-class GPs staged at the track have produced a winning margin in excess of two seconds. Mostly fast, bumpy and slippery, the circuit may not allow gravity-defying cornering like some grippier tracks but its 1.1km back straight (one of the longest in GP racing) promotes slipstreaming, which helps keep riders bunched together all race long. The Jacarepagua lap record is six years old because the surface has become bumpier in recent years and the last three races have all been run in wet conditions.

JACAREPAGUA
4.933km/3.065 miles
Lap record: Tadayuki Okada (Honda), 1:51.928 158.662kmh/98.588mph (1997)
Pole position 2002: Max Biaggi (Marlboro Yamaha Team), 1:50.568

DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM DATA LOGS

TROY BAYLISS
Age: 34
Lives: Monaco
Bike: Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici
First GP: Australia, 1997 (250)
GP starts: 12 (11xMotoGP, 1×250)
World Superbike victories: 22
World Championships: 1 (Superbike: 2001)
Rio 2002 results: DNS

LORIS CAPIROSSI
Age: 30
Lives: Monaco
Bike: Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici
GP victories: 23 (1xMotoGP, 2×500, 12×250, 8×125)
First GP victory: Britain, 1990 (125)
First GP: Japan, 1990 (125)
GP starts: 195 (25xMotoGP, 59×500, 84×250, 27×125)
Pole positions: 36 (3xMotoGP, 5×500, 23×250, 5×125)
First pole: Australia, 1991 (125)
World Championships: 3 (125: 1990, 1991, 250: 1998)
Rio 2002 results: Grid 12th. Race 5th