HRC STILL FAR FROM BEING RACE-READY

There are just six weeks left until the season-opening Qatar GP. That’s all the time HRC have to transform their troublesome RC213V into a bike that can compete with Yamaha’s apparently perfect YZR-M1. Last week at Sepang both factory Repsol Honda riders struggled to even get close to the pace set by Lorenzo. The pair ended the three-day outing fifth and 11th overall, split by sixthquickest LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow. The Spanish pair were 1.2 seconds and 1.5 seconds off the pace. During the last four seasons the RC213V was a mighty weapon, a nearperfect union of engine, electronics and chassis. True, HRC got it a bit wrong last season with an engine that was too wild even for Marquez, but this year they face a whole new problem. That trinity of performance between engine, electronics and chassis has been blown apart by Dorna’s new electronics rules which have forced HRC to shelve years of diligent R&D work on their own electronics. The dramatic downgrade from HRC electronics – a 10-year backward step according to HRC vice-president Shuhei Nakamoto – has robbed the RCV of the high-tech rider aids that played a vital role in its last three Moto GP crowns, two with Marquez and one with Casey Stoner. The RCV’s wild, 90° V4 engine was always a handful but it’s much more than that with such basic electronics. “To me it looks like the main problem is the electronics – we are still too far from the level at which we need to be,” said Marquez at Sepang. “On the last day here we made some progress, especially with my rhythm. Most importantly it’s a little bit easier to keep up the pace but we are still far from where we want to be. At the moment Jorge is too far ahead, his rhythm is between seven tenths and one second faster than ours, which is a lot.” Marquez and Pedrosa both tried an evolution version of the 2016 RCV engine and found some improvement.

“Honda have made some small internal modifications and this has given us an improvement when you first touch the gas. This is what we are working on because we lose most time out of corners. The engine is aggressive, so we are working a lot on the electronics.” Pedrosa, going into his 11th season with Repsol Honda, also wasn’t happy. “The bike feels unstable into corners, the corner speed isn’t so good and we have pumping on the exits,” said the former 125 and 250 champ. “I followed a few Ducatis on corner exits and the difference on to the straights is massive. We need to change things but it’s a case of what and how do we apply it.” At least Marquez kept grinning through the gloom. “The level of the bike isn’t ready for me to make a time attack. During this test I wasn’t pushing 100 per cent and you could see that because I didn’t have any crashes!”