We all know the story, don’t we? Well, there is a MotoGp equivalent. It’s the Honda RC212V. Despite being the company that pushed hardest for the adoption of the 800cc formula in MotoGp, Honda appeared to be least well prepared when the rubber finally hit the track. The 800 was seen to be tricky, flighty and simply not fast enough. It got blitzed by the Ducati and then the Yamahas and many wondered just how a mighty organisation could have got things so wrong.
Well, this year the ugly duckling has turned into a beautiful swan (at least that’s how the Honda riders would be seeing it – I’m sure opposing teams would be using all sorts of other analogies)
In Season 2011 we have had 6 races and only one of them has NOT been won by an RC212V (that was at Jerez where Stoner COULD have won if he hadn’t been torpedoed by Rossi) Further to that, the Hondas have been busy stacking up the minors instead. What has happened? Well, the only major change that Honda made to the RC in the off-season was the adoption of their super-secret gearbox. Apart from that, HRC execs insist that the bike is substantially unchanged from the one that gave Pedrobot a full house towards the end of 2010.
Others may disagree. Rossi has been quoted as saying that the RC is “like the M1 Yamaha but with 20 more horsepower”. There is no doubt that Honda is now on a winner. Pundits are already drawing parallels between Stoner’s 2007 season and the current one, with the caveat that, this year, he seems to be doing it even easier than he did then. Stoner’s insistence that the bike is so easy to ride and that they haven’t really done anything to improve it since the season started is an ominous warning to the competition that Honda is on top and COULD, if they wished, extract even more performance from the bike than what they are presently getting.
There are certainly some downcast brows in the paddock at the moment. One of the best barometers of just how discouraged they are is the increasing level of chatter about the 2012 season that is doing the rounds. I’m not saying that the teams have given up trying to compete, but it does seem that some have basically drawn a line under 2011 and are already looking for a fresh start when the new formula is adopted. Suzuki, I believe, WILL cease its MotoGp involvement at the end of the year, dropping the grid numbers to just 16 (assuming all riders are fit) but it is expected that that slack will be taken up by Martinez who want to run a second bike alongside Barbera’s and by the HB Karbon Team who want to run a second Ducati alongside Karel Abraham’s bike.
And what of 2012? Well, despite being told that the “final” list of entrants would be released at Catalunya, and then being told again that we would know at Silverstone, the latest word from the corridors of power is that we will now be told tomorrow (Wednesday) who is in and who is out. The delay has been caused by the FIM’s inability to fully clarify the “Claiming Rule” and also their lack of a clear statement over what the word “Production” means in relation to these teams.
Here is the FIM’s statement.
“On the occasion of the San Marino Round of the 2011 FIM Superbike World Championship in Misano (ITA), and with reference to the interviews recently published on some motorsports web sites, FIM President Vito Ippolito reiterated what has already been stated several times:
“Any complete motorcycle model derived from series production, homologated or not for the FIM Superbike/Supersport/Superstock is not eligible and will not be accepted in the FIM Grand Prix World Championship classes,”
Now I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t really help much. The sticking point is what the FIM’s decision will be about what is a “complete motorcycle” As I read it it will mean that the CRT teams will be able to run a modified production engine in a prototype chassis (which is what I thought it meant all along anyway – I don’t know what the query is about) Most entrants for this class look like coming from the existing Moto2 teams, some of whom are already testing their bikes (Marc VDS, for example)
The actual claiming rule thing is already mired in obscurity and controversy and it hasn’t even been instituted yet, I give it a year max, and it will be quietly dropped. Remember that it was tried in AMA racing years ago and was a dismal failure? It will fail again.
BUT, here’s the thing (as that famous TV host is wont to say). It is now believed that the FIM will limit MotoGp grids to 22, or at most, 24 riders! Yes, that’s right. If there are 17 “factory” riders (or 18 is HB gets their way) that leaves only room for FOUR and, at the most SIX new bikes on the grid……..HANG ON. Wasn’t the idea of the 2012 formula to put a lot more bikes on the grid? I don’t see just a FEW more bikes as being any great advance, especially since they won’t be competitive with the prototype bikes anyway.
I believe the CRT thing is doomed. Who, in their right mind, is going to spend the motza of money required to put a bike/s on the grid when they know they are going to be competing for 17th place? They surely can’t believe that they will EVER put one on the podium, so what’s the point?
One thing IS certain. The other manufacturers must be hoping that they can turn their bikes into swans as well, because, at the moment, there is only one of them out there. You may not like the look of the RC212V (I don’t), but, as long as it keeps winning, it’s pretty. As Dan Gurney once said about the ATS formula one car (arguably the ugliest thing ever built), “If it goes fast, it will look good.”