John McGuinness column
HRC move has McPint wondering if it was Ducati or Lorenzo at fault
Lorenzo to Honda is an interesting move. The Ducati thing clearly wasn’t working, but I scratch my head about how inconsistent that bike is. Or is it him? How can he go from nowhere one weekend to winning the next? Twice on the bounce. He’s a peculiar bloke, but when everything’s right he is incredible. When he won with Yamaha he could hit the exact same lap time every lap for the whole race.
Making that Ducati work isn’t easy. Rossi couldn’t do it, Cal
‘THE HONDA IS A PROVEN WINNER, IT’S A NATURAL FIT FOR HIM’
couldn’t do it, the only person who has been able to tame it is Dovi, but it’s taken him seven years. If you were Ducati you’d have to keep Dovi on board, throwing wildcards like Lorenzo in will either work or it won’t, and in this case it hasn’t, unless his last two races are more than just a weird blip.
But the Honda move makes for a fascinating pair-up! One rider who is completely on the edge everywhere, and one who is really meticulous and calculating. That’ll be good to see, the Honda ain’t a bad bike! Their styles are very different but they can both win. Look at Pedrosa, he’s much smoother than Marquez and he did OK. You have to put yourself in Lorenzo’s shoes: the Suzuki is unknown, a satellite Yamaha is not good enough for him, so what were his other options? The Honda is a proven winner so it’s a natural fit for him.
His style is similar to Pedrosa and you’d have to say Lorenzo is better than him, he’s won more titles than him anyway. Think back to that Assen crash where Lorenzo broke his collarbone in Thursday practice, went away, got it pinned and came back and raced. He’s a hardy little sh**.