Only 2 Honda Riders yet to win a race in 2016

Arrabbiata1 said:

. Moreover, when the temperature drops, Dani in particular struggles to get heat into the new Michelin’s –

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povol said:

Which is a double whammy for Dani since the Honda is at its best in cool weather. Honda riders suffer more as the temps climb from putting to much heat into the tires. The Honda is a fickle ..... that has the narrowest of track temp performance window. Dani's only hope of winning a race is Sepang, IF, its warm but overcast, not to hot, not to cold. I dont know this for a fact as i have not done any research, but it seems that Honda has been lucky as far as weather in that the tracks they were really figured to struggle, its been cooler than normal [which Yamaha doesnt like] or wet. Except for COTA, the Yamaha has shown better performance at every track so far, but an array of events and subsequent mistakes have derailed what should have been a runaway Yamaha 1-2 in the championship. If Honda didnt have Marquez, this would be one of the most humiliating seasons in memory. This bike has serious issues and the tires have amplified them for Dani to the point that he is irrelevant. If a string of 4-5 normal races happen, Yamaha's performance advantage could easily put them back in the hunt.

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JPSLotus said:

I think this discussion also brings up another avenue of discussion, and it may be jumping the gun right now. But, I'm starting to get the distinct feeling HRC made a mistake in resigning Pedrosa for 2 more seasons. He's not the right guy to be on the RCV any longer, and if there really was a Yamaha offer, not moving to the M1 was a very bad career move.

I think HRC ...... up actually in two ways. They re-signed Pedro when it looks like they shouldn't have, and they let VDM get away in SBK. Given what Pedro is doing right now, you could get any other rider to do the same thing at a bare minimum. I really felt they should have pushed VDM up to the factory RCV as his riding style is more in line with Marquez/Crutchlow where he is willing to ride the RCV as it needs to be ridden: hard. Yes I realize the implication there. Quips aside, unless HRC has a way to make the RCV smoother for 2017 and 2018, I see two more years of a wasted seat space, which will have given Pedrosa an unheard of 12 years on a factory team without delivering so much as a single world title.

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povol said:

Im not sold on VDM, like i said a month ago, as Hayden familiarizes himself with bike, tires and tracks, his performance has caught up to VDM and he is considered a washed up GP racer. Hayden or even Rea would be a better short term replacement for Pedrosa than VDM in my eyes. Rea won multiple races on an equally outgunned Honda over the years and Hayden has at least
one win to his credit. VDM has shown me nothing that says he deserves a top flight GP bike.

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povol said:

Im not sold on VDM, like i said a month ago, as Hayden familiarizes himself with bike, tires and tracks, his performance has caught up to VDM and he is considered a washed up GP racer. Hayden or even Rea would be a better short term replacement for Pedrosa than VDM in my eyes. Rea won multiple races on an equally outgunned Honda over the years and Hayden has at least
one win to his credit. VDM has shown me nothing that says he deserves a top flight GP bike.

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Jumkie said:

Well, to be fair you've so far done a poor job of building your case. Frankly, HelloMars, who barely speaks English has constructed a far more convincing and articulate post that the RCV is developed away from Pedrosa's suitability. Nonetheless, your contention is that the "development" direction is Dani's handicap, how do you explain Pedrosa's best performance was at the tail end of last year, WHEN development outcomes were at their peak (according to you decide in favor of Marc)? Doesn't it seem illogical that when development had progressed to suit Marquez throughout the year is when Pedrosa did best? That doesn't make sense, does it?

Again, I contend it's the dramatic change in tires and .... all to do with the RCV and the development direction. The dramatic plunge of Pedrosa, from being the rider with the overall best performance in the last 5 races last year to now hanging on to midpack coincides with one glaring change: MISHITLIN tires.

If you live in a glass house, don't throw rocks.

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JPSLotus said:

Rea isn't going to jump to GP now. After this Kawasaki deal ends he would be 32 if he decided to go to GP in 2019. No factory team is going to touch him at that point. He'll either be on a satellite, or stay in SBK till he leaves.

VDM is a lot better than you give him credit for. Having SBK success is no indicator of ability since the series is so stacked in favor of Kawasaki now. After all, look at Spies and Edwards. Edwards won 2 SBK titles, went to GP and never won a single race. I think Spies' GP tenure was more complicated than Edwards by a country mile. But VDM, his riding style is more conducive to the RCV than the Fireblade. VDM has a much higher ceiling at hand.

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Arrabbiata1 said:

Nakamoto insists that it’s not the tyres but the electronics that have hammered a world beating machine into submission and emasculated the once indomitable all-conquering 2013 RCV. He would say that, but he is also adamant that there have been very few changes to the RCV since then. I’m sure Marc for one would beg to differ. He also maintains that the open class RC213v RS models ridden by Hayden and Miller last year in spite of the head start on the software packages yielded little in the way of useable data because this year’s software bears no resemblance. That’s strange, Ducati claim otherwise.

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Arrabbiata1 said:

Mea culpa. This is utterly incorrect and to give credence to Nakamoto's claims, I was reading an interview with Dall'Igna today who made the following comments:

'The software we used last year and this year are completely different. For sure the unified software isn't as sophisticated - it's like what we used five of six years ago - but because it's more simple it's actually more difficult to find a proper set up. The only reason we are doing well is because last year we worked with the Open software on the Open bikes'.

This of course is prompted amid allegations that Ducati are benefiting from their long standing relationship with Magneti Marelli - but then come to think of it so are Yamaha. Given the rudimentary electronics, the TC operates at a lag and is less reactive because the working calculations from the ECU are slower. It may only be milliseconds, but riders at this level, of this calibre and attempting to tame such powerful machinery feel it. On the other hand, Tom O'Kane feels that the unified software compares favourably with the software that they had before so Suzuki have experienced less of drop than Honda and Yamaha.

Márquez meanwhile continues to valiantly ride around the problem. I stand by my contention that unlike Márquez , Pedrosa is less able to get power to ground being inhibited by his style, which unlike Marquez generates less fore-aft pitch to load and heat the tyres. Far from mental frailty, the same problem afflicts Lorenzo in the wet in my opinion which is a product of his unorthodox set up.

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