Doohan was at the height of his
powers.
But there is still work to be
done. For example, Honda, pre-
eminent targets for the leveling-
down process in the first place,
have been leveled down a bit
too far. Over the past three sea-
sons, two of them were winless,
and
the middle year brought
only three.
By contrast, Ducati has lev-
eled themselves up rather too
successfully. A surge
towards
domination has been largely
powered by highly creative
interpretation of the rules, to the
point that last season, three of
their eight galloping riders won
12 of the 20 races. The next
best, Yamaha, took only three,
with two apiece for KTM and
the departed Suzuki, and one for
Aprilia.
Time to think again about
leveling up?
Dorna has other experience
at this game, most notably in
World Superbike, where (among
other labyrinthine detailed
tweaks) movable rev limits seek
to deny technical advantage to
the strongest and give a leg-
up to the rest. Things are even
more complicated in the smaller
production-based categories,
where fewer cylinders mean
more cubic capacity.
Oddly, this last harks back
to the antediluvian regs of the
original TT races of 1907, where
classes were divided into single-
and twin-cylinders, while pre-war
racing at Brooklands employed
F
or Dorna, racing is about
leveling up. Or, in the case
of technical regs, down. In
this way, factory teams that had
advantages of budget and tech-
nical resources were brought to
earth
in the interest of indepen-
dent teams. And costs reined in
by
specifying control tires, elec-
tronics, fuel spec and capacity,
cylinder bore
size, nowadays
even tire pressures.
Ancient history, all that. And
to considerable effect. The
result has been very close rac-
ing, often scarily so, and more
race
winners. Eight last year, a
record nine in 2016 and 2020.
Compare that with four each
year in 2001 and 2002, the start
of four-stroke MotoGP, and a
dismal three in 1997 when Mick
P110
CN II IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
LEVELING UP,
THE MOTOGP WAY
