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MotoGP
MOTOGP: Noyes’ Notebook - Honda Goes For Broke
Dennis Noyes states the results of the Sepang test are screaming that Honda is all in as the factory approaches its final chance to take a 800cc MotoGP title.
Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner (Photo: Honda Pro Images)
After three days of testing at Sepang, Malaysia, the temptation to draw conclusions is difficult to resist. But the only thing that really stands out after the opening of the 2011 preseason is that Honda, their backs against the wall, have got their RC212V working so well that it can be ridden very quickly by riders of very different styles and statures -- big and relatively wild Marco Simoncelli, small and smooth Dani Pedrosa, spectacular and mercurial Casey Stoner, and the always steady and patient Andrea Dovizioso.
Honda is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the final year of what some have called “Formula HRC,” and what the FIM calls MotoGP 800, a series run under a five-year rules package that was devised and imposed by the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association (GPMA) under the presidency (2002-2007) of then Honda HRC President Suguru Kanazawa.
If Honda doesn’t finally take their first championship under the current regulations this year, the fifth and final MotoGP 800 season, it will be a humiliation for the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer. Honda executives and technicians know what history will say of them if they fail again. They will never say it outside the inner circle, but the urgency is real.
In spite of the market downturn and world economic crisis, Honda is fielding four factory riders: three (Pedrosa, Stoner, Dovizioso) running out of the Repsol Honda garage and the fourth (Simoncelli) entered by Team Gresini. And it was a great start as Honda riders, led, surprisingly, by Marco Simoncelli, swept the first three places and four of the first five in the Malaysia tests.
Simoncelli's quick times (4th on Tuesday, 5th on Wednesday, and 1st on Thursday) made it clear that, at least now, the Gresini Honda is virtually identical to the three Repsol Hondas. Pedrosa, starting his sixth year as a factory Honda rider in MotoGP, was 3rd on Tuesday, 1st on Wednesday, and 6th on Thursday, while Stoner, in his first year as a Honda factory rider, was never out of the top three -- 1st on Tuesday, 2nd on Wednesday, and 3rd on Thursday. Dovizioso, starting his third year for the Repsol Honda team, was 8th, 4th, and 4th. Even Hiroshi Aoyama, on what is said to be a satellite Gresini RC212V, was seventh overall, beating the best of the Ducati riders (Nicky Hayden) by around two tenths of a second.
Honda is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the final year of what some have called “Formula HRC,” and what the FIM calls MotoGP 800, a series run under a five-year rules package that was devised and imposed by the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association (GPMA) under the presidency (2002-2007) of then Honda HRC President Suguru Kanazawa.
If Honda doesn’t finally take their first championship under the current regulations this year, the fifth and final MotoGP 800 season, it will be a humiliation for the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer. Honda executives and technicians know what history will say of them if they fail again. They will never say it outside the inner circle, but the urgency is real.
In spite of the market downturn and world economic crisis, Honda is fielding four factory riders: three (Pedrosa, Stoner, Dovizioso) running out of the Repsol Honda garage and the fourth (Simoncelli) entered by Team Gresini. And it was a great start as Honda riders, led, surprisingly, by Marco Simoncelli, swept the first three places and four of the first five in the Malaysia tests.
Simoncelli's quick times (4th on Tuesday, 5th on Wednesday, and 1st on Thursday) made it clear that, at least now, the Gresini Honda is virtually identical to the three Repsol Hondas. Pedrosa, starting his sixth year as a factory Honda rider in MotoGP, was 3rd on Tuesday, 1st on Wednesday, and 6th on Thursday, while Stoner, in his first year as a Honda factory rider, was never out of the top three -- 1st on Tuesday, 2nd on Wednesday, and 3rd on Thursday. Dovizioso, starting his third year for the Repsol Honda team, was 8th, 4th, and 4th. Even Hiroshi Aoyama, on what is said to be a satellite Gresini RC212V, was seventh overall, beating the best of the Ducati riders (Nicky Hayden) by around two tenths of a second.
Grand Prix of The Americas
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