Carmelo imposed spec tyres & spec electronics and given Aprilia extensive testing privileges denied to the top teams. They also have the example of Ducati & Suzuki and can take heart in the the steady progress they've made over the last two seasons with their best-ever finish at Qatar this year (where they were almost as fast as Honda).
None of this explains why Bridgestone or Michelin would have any incentive to switch focus from their reliable race-winning customers to the aspiring outfits like Aprilia or Suzuki.
Did you expect the likes of Honda & Yamaha to just roll over and accept an artificial handicap that they could do nothing to rectify?
Carmelo allowed Aprilia to field a SBK in MotoGP when he screwed up the control tyre decision and lost Suzuki and Kawasaki as a result. Gigi abandoned Aprilia for Ducati, he knows more than us. Aprilia may Spring a surprise at some point, at present they simply make up the numbers and benefit from the competition. Just like tyre suppliers would have if they were allowed to hang around. The real point for being there, not the trophies.
Now in my previous post I acknowledge I made an error. A top rider on top tires did win 2007. The entire problem which led to the control tyre was it was assumed a lesser rider on a top bike and top tires won in 2007. It was being reported all over the place at the time. The PlayStation boy, winning with electronics. Rossi was outraged that this could happen. Yes Rossi, he believed in it vehemently. Stoner was a lesser rider. Wasn't trying 100%. He believed it right up until that fateful day at the end of 2010 at the Valencia test. He had to believe it, or no way in hell would he have signed up for Ducati. By then it was way too late, both for him and Carmelo.
Carmelo also believed strongly in what Rossi was saying. A lesser rider had won the championship, and set about preventing any recurrence. The fans tune in to watch the yellow mr T. rex, they aren't interested in skippy the kangaroo. Dinosaurs are far more entertaining. But by ensuring you got your fix of T. rex every week he completely destroyed the product of MotoGP to the point we had factory Honda and Yamaha vs CRT. In his desperation Carmelo actually started to push for a return to prototype or development tyres in 2012. They needed something. Interesting they looked so quickly to the tyres. They must be important.
Having the whole thing so badly screwed up, hardly any competitive teams left, Carmelo had no choice at all but to go control ecu. This is nothing like control tyre. Electronics are horrendously expensive, while tyres are relatively cheap. How many electronics techs did satellite teams have vs factory. This was the artificial handicap the factory teams cared about, not tyres. Only Rossi and Carmelo cared about tyres. How many tyre techs do satellite teams have vs factory? Neither had any, not required. The control ecu had the desired effect and allowed Carmelo to keep his job after his disastrous and misguided tyre shenanigans and failed CRT experiment.
But the most obvious thing is 2016. We had much better competition. How can that be? Control ecu was a major factor yes. The other was Michelin. After years of development with Bridgestone, do you understand what the difference was with Michelin? A totally new tyre. The equivalent of a development or prototype tire. A new supplier. All of a sudden, smaller mammal teams like Suzuki and Ducati became much more competitive because they were faster to react than the dinosaurs. Sure the lumbering giants won out in the end, but what we saw in 2016 was akin to the tyre wars. New refined tyres were being thrown out practically every second race. As time goes on and the bigs boys continue to spend and refine and spend more and refine more with Michelin it will simply go back to looking more like it was in 2015 after 7 years with Bridgestone. All because it was simply assumed a lesser rider dominated a championship in 2007.
