CAL IN THE MIX
Crutchlow matches Marquez, but Honda woes continue
Two engine specs, an updated gearbox and clutch, revised triple clamp, new exhaust system, modified swingarm and rear linkage meant Christmas came late for Cal Crutchlow last week. The British rider worked his way through an exhaustive testing schedule in Sepang, as Honda desperately tries to strike back in 2016 after Yamaha dominated last year’s Moto GP world championship. Thankfully, the LCR Honda rider was as fast as he was busy, with a best lap of 2.00.899 putting him sixth and just 0.056s behind double world champion and HRC talisman Marc Marquez. Encouraging on paper, but the timesheets still made for some uncomfortable viewing at HRC, with Crutchlow almost 1.5s behind Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo. Honda’s RC213V earned a reputation for being an unruly beast last season, with an aggressive engine character being its biggest Achilles heel. But 10 months after HRC realised its wild V4 was unforgiving and at times unmanageable, the mission to roll out a user-friendly machine has not yet been accomplished. The consensus is that the current RC213V is fast for a lap time but not tame enough to be ridden hard and consistently over longer distances, unlike the Yamaha and Ducati. The switch to controlled Magneti Marelli electronics has thrown HRC a major curve ball, with Honda struggling to get a handle on the new software. Crutchlow spent the majority of the test using last year’s RC213V engine, but on the final day he switched to an upgraded prototype motor that Marquez and Dani Pedrosa tested in Jerez at the end of November. Crutchlow said: “Every Honda, whether it’s last year’s bike or this year’s bike, is struggling with the electronics. I ran last year’s motor and the one Dani and Marc tried that was an upgrade in Jerez, and the electronics are all the same on it; we are struggling. I went faster on the old bike by a half a tenth, so it was a very small margin, but the characteristics of the new bike are different. It is still aggressive but it is quite different in the middle of the corners.” Crutchlow admitted the physical demands of riding the RC213V are way greater than the energy levels required to muscle Yamaha’s YZR-M1 and Ducati’s Desmosedici round the track. He added: “You’ve seen on TV how hard me, Dani and Marc were riding the bike, and you will see the same this year. It hasn’t suddenly got like a Yamaha where everything is smooth. We still have to push our bike very hard to do the lap time, which is one of the most concerning things. It is quite physically demanding and this is what we hoped had improved. We have to trust Honda and I hope to have a competitive package by the Qatar race. I felt I kept something in my pocket and I don’t think I’ve shown anything like my true potential. But we know Honda are struggling.”
‘I don’t think I’ve shown anything like my true potential at this test’