points were an issue too. If he didn't win last week, winning every race for the remainder of the season wouldn't have guaranteed a championship. He had to close the gap and was willing to risk crashing out to achieve that.
Maybe MM hasn't really learned how to be a great development rider yet. Until these recent problems, the Honda fit his style pretty well from day one, so perhaps there hasn't been much need for him to learn how to developme a Moto GP bike.
According to David Emmett at Motomatters, testing at Speang may have masked the issue due to the nature of he track and high ambient temps robbing the motor of HP. Also, isn't Stoner the premier HRC test rider? He claimed to know what's wrong with the Honda in a recent interview but wouldn't say what the problem is. Did HRC listen to his input?
Not sure if it was the same article however, I read that they would not adjust the settings on his bike.
For what it is worth…I remember reading many times over, reported from different riders, that the Japanese really don't listen to the riders…once they get the bike to where they think it should be, they keep it right there and won't make the changes. Could this be possible in 2015? Maybe not, maybe it's a thing from the past... To think that MM is somehow suddenly incapable of winning is nuts, the guy has all sorts of skill! Could it be that other riders/teams have just stepped up to the plate and now it's a bit more difficult for MM to dominate? Or is it a combination of factors leading to what we are seeing now on the track?
It's not a coincidence (imho) that MMs domination ended when Yamaha got the seamless gearbox. As has been pointed out the Honda has not gotten slower, the other factories are getting faster. He simply had a better bike now he doesn't. He pushes too hard and is making young mistakes.
Are you sure that that's the Japanese or the Italians? I seem to recall that during the 2012 season Honda built a whole new chassis for the RC that they brought out mid-season. And at the same time Rossi was asking for all sorts of changes to the Ducati and all they gave him was like a set of new rearsets lol. http://world.honda.com/MotoGPreport/2012/2012review/
It's funny, but I seem to recall 'everyone' said that same basic thing about Lorenzo not that long ago. "It's all in his head". "He's mentally done in". *shrug*
It has been said many times over the years about Honda engineers. Very few guys were able to dictate what they wanted. Mick Doohan comes to mind. Rossi as well, most likely, but that's just me guessing.
I think there is definitely some truth to this. :up: I believe the 2015 Honda is a bit tougher for him to ride, but the main factor in current championship standings is that Yamaha and Ducati have made big improvements. Yamaha seems to listen to their factory riders.
Winner winner chicken dinner. The seamless tranny was good for up to a full second on certain tracks. Now that everyone has some sort of that technology its kinda leveled the playing field. Like you said, the Honda is not slower it's just that the other factories have caught up.
Sometimes it is really hard to get engineers to realize that what works on paper doesn't always work on pavement.
And it may just get even harder for HRC yet this season http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/220118/1/lorenzo-and-rossi-test-new-chassis-at-aragon.html
Could history be repeating itself? Look at what happened the last time stoner led the development of a bike(Ducati).
I'm not biting on that bait! I don't think Stoner is leading the development of the Honda, but rather just offering additional feedback from a third world class rider.
