H
ow many factory teams
are there in MotoGP?
Well, next year, with the
return of Suzuki and Aprilia to re-
join Honda, Yamaha and Ducati,
there will be five. And in 2016,
assuming KTM's plans come to
fruition, six.
Looks like a signal success
for Dorna's dumb-down cost-
limiting strategy, after at least a
decade of false starts and con-
voluted negotiation.
But there is a body of opinion
that counts the factory teams
rather differently.
By this method, there is only
one. Its name is Honda.
Of course it is all to do with
money, and method. The latter
being directly related to the for-
mer. Somebody once compared
Honda with NASA, but consider-
ing NASA's budget cuts, HRC
has probably outstripped the US
space agency.
If this seems a little unfair to Ya-
maha, it's actually the other way
around. It's a tribute, considering
what this smaller fish manages
to achieve on smaller resources.
Through passion and intelligence
Yamaha provides HRC with a
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
MONEY TALKS WHEN
FACTORIES GO FACE TO FACE
P122
