Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 27 JULY 8, 2014 P137 spoke electronics are traded for extra engines, fuel and tires. Go a bit further down pit lane, and you'll get the opposite an- swer. Go to the Honda Racing Corporation truck parked out the back, and you're liable to get a flea in your ear. If the intention was to make the competition more equal, the fail- ure has been complete. The happiest camper is Aleix Espargaro, after a series of strong runs and fastest free prac- tice times underlined with pole position and fourth place at As- sen. Okay, it was a race where weather tactics were crucial, and he got them right. All the same, it was no great surprise. For his NGM Forward team the bike is a factory Yamaha in almost every regard. One drawback is the electronics – he must use the control unit supplied by Dorna. Other exceptions go in his favor: an extra four liters of fuel, and (most importantly for qualifying) access to extra-soft tires. No wonder an ambitious and talented rider is able to make his mark, and to challenge the fac- tory guys. Over at Honda, by contrast, four riders are left to race one another. Their RCV1000R bikes are pretty cool for something you can buy and own: close replicas of the factory RC213V machines, minus not only electronics but also pneumatic valve springs and a seamless-shift gearbox. And, clearly, some horsepower. After all, why would Honda build a bike capable of challenging their fac- tory riders? As we've discussed, it was all a matter of Honda getting wrong- footed. They built a bike entirely in keeping with not just the let- ter but also the spirit of the new rules, as they saw them. Who could have guessed that Yamaha would come up with the full fac- tory goods for their single cus- tomer team? Again, it was a matter of being wrong-footed. They'd intended to supply only engines, leased rath- er than sold; their only customer failed to furnish the rest of the bike and came cap in hand back to Yamaha. Bit by bit, they got a chassis, then a swingarm. Ex- factory stock. They had pieced together an M1. Fresh off a long fast straight at Montmelo in Catalunya, the top speed figures tell a story. Espar- garo's nearly-M1 was at 209.7 mph some five clicks slower than the fastest factory bike: Dovizio- so's Ducati at 214.5. He was also almost five mph faster than the best of the production Hondas: Karel Abraham clocked 205.3 mph. By comparison, the fastest factory Yamaha, ridden by Espar- garo's younger brother Pol, ran 213. The other production Hon- das were way off the money: Hiro Aoyama ran 204.5, Scott Redding 203.7 and the increas- ingly glum Nicky Hayden 203.5. That's fully six mph slower than the so-called Open Yamaha, and 10 miles an hour off the factory bikes. It's even worse when it comes to lap times… the Hondas also lack acceleration, and suffer cor- ner after corner. While Espargaro can challenge the factory bikes to the hundredth, the Hondas are inevitably 1.5 or even two sec- onds slower. Honda is rumored to be plan- ning a bit of a blitz for their home race at Motegi, making full facto- ry engines available to their pro- duction runners, but that seems a bit out of character. It'd be more like Honda to give them the full cream version for the whole year, next year. And hang the expense. As they've done in Moto3. For now, it's a series of ritual humiliations for the Honda riders, and a spell of glory for the toothy Spaniard. In Aesop's fable, the tortoise beat the hare because the hare lost focus. Is that what Honda did? Or, since they were doing no more than obliging Dorna's dumb-down plans, then the Spanish company are the real culprits. Dumbing down is an anathema to World Championship racing. Just look at Moto2: I am not the only one who finds it an embar- rassment. The truth is out there. Tortois- es don't win GPs. CN

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