2019 Phillip Island - Pramac Generac Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix

Keshav said:

Logically speaking, if Lorenzo can't ride the bike at a competitive clip, his assessment of parts and settings will only be useful or pertinent to slow riding.

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they could be playing around with rev limits, settings, other components for 2020, who knows?

Little Walter said:

For one thing, Zarco did better than Lorenzo who has had ample time to adjust to the bike. Moreover, Zarco has a good track record on the Yamaha. He's not exactly an unknown. Especially important, he's young and not plagued with injuries, and will work cheaper than Lorenzo. I would say that adds up to a lot of potential.

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riding a Yamaha and riding a Honda are very different, as was the KTM... Stefan Bradl has also ridden the Honda this season with two top 10 finishes, yet no-one has been impressed by that.

I think there is a big difference between the I4 bikes and the V4 bikes, almost every rider seems to struggle when switching between them, and can not replicate their success.

Keshav said:

Logically speaking, if Lorenzo can't ride the bike at a competitive clip, his assessment of parts and settings will only be useful or pertinent to slow riding.

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His input did improve the Ducati.

evo9 said:

His input did improve the Ducati.

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Apples and Oranges Mate. Lorenzo wasn't badly injured and coasting around in last place on the Ducati. Therefore, he could generate relevant data.

evo9 said:

His input did improve the Ducati.

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Ducati built him several different versions of GP17s and GP18s that included multiple different frames. he eventually did find some success with the GP18, and there are still rumors about him returning to Ducati with an independent customer team.

Hollywood said:

they could be playing around with rev limits, settings, other components for 2020, who knows?



riding a Yamaha and riding a Honda are very different, as was the KTM... Stefan Bradl has also ridden the Honda this season with two top 10 finishes, yet no-one has been impressed by that.

I think there is a big difference between the I4 bikes and the V4 bikes, almost every rider seems to struggle when switching between them, and can not replicate their success.

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Bradl did three seasons on the LCR team and never exhibited the kind of talent/results Zarco did on the Yamaha. It's to be expected that any rider is going to struggle on Honda in it's present state of design. A younger hungrier rider is going to push harder and take more risks than a beat up older rider who really just wants to be back on the M1. More credit to Cal BTW for sticking it out all this time on a bike that just isn't rider friendly.

Hollywood said:

I don't get why everyone is so impressed with Zarco...

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Maybe because he performed about as well as TN has recently without ever throwing a leg over the bike prior to Friday and basically had zero effective FP time...?

Nah, nothing of note there...

Mick D said:

Maybe because he performed about as well as TN has recently without ever throwing a leg over the bike prior to Friday and basically had zero effective FP time...?

Nah, nothing of note there...

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the man has raced motorcycles his entire life, has a few Motogp seasons under his belt, and only lost his ride a few weeks ago. combine that with the fact that the KTM is probably the hardest bike to ride on the grid. we all follow the sport, we have seen riders switch bikes, we have seen riders from other series come in for one off wild cards races... they usually finish in the bottom 5, which is where Zarco finished... yet so many people expect Honda to buy out Lorenzo and sign Zarco because of this result.

the reason I mention Bradl is because Honda already have him, they can sub him for Lorenzo when ever they need him, with a realistic shot at a top 10 result. However they dont seem interested in doing that anymore, while knowing that Lorenzo is bringing up the rear.

It is known what Bradl can do on this bike, everybody is keen to see what Zarco can do - he just started and he even didn't have much practice time. Zarco said he can have confidence with Honda front (unlike Lorenzo), needs more practice to get closer to the limits.

my point is: if Honda were concerned with Lorenzo, or even considering a change, or simply trying to get points, they would have gone with Bradl. To me that demonstrates that Honda do not care about Lorenzos performance, and will not replace him next season.

Somehow I don't think it is true. What kind of manufacturer would be proud to have a bike only one man in the world can ride? Not exactly suitable theme for a sales pitch, is it?

Hollywood said:

my point is: if Honda were concerned with Lorenzo, or even considering a change, or simply trying to get points, they would have gone with Bradl. To me that demonstrates that Honda do not care about Lorenzos performance, and will not replace him next season.

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Come on man, how can Honda not be concerned with Lorenzos performance? For one thing they are paying him a good salary and getting zero results. And as has been said before it doesn’t make the company look good if only one rider can get results. The Japanese are nothing if not pragmatic. Remember how they treated Dovizioso when he was on the third Repsol bike and scoring points regularly. Despite having a contractual agreement they dumped him like he was last year's garbage, and it cost them a lot of money. No reason to think they can’t and won’t do the same to Lorenzo.