Cal Crutchlow will be, this weekend, the unmissable star of the British Grand Prix and celebrated by an entire population who will honor his victorious and rainy campaign in the Czech Republic. What's more, he rekindled the flame of victory that had been extinguished for 35 years in a Kingdom orphaned by its Barry Sheene. Could he bring this back home? The LCR driver tempers and points out that he only has a Honda.
An approach that brings everyone back down to earth. The Englishman hopes that this will also open the eyes of the world's leading manufacturer who would be wrong to hide behind appearances. Certainly it's his peak driver Marc Márquez who leads the title race with a good margin of 53 and 69 points over a duo in Yamaha. Certainly, the last two victories of independent pilots are successes for the RC213V, with Jack Miller et Cal Crutchlow. But the fact is that HRC's latest addition is anything but a success.
A paradox which, if not taken into account in Japan, could have serious consequences for the future. Some are already talking about a syndrome Stoner who would have struck the winged coat of arms. By that, mean that there is only one driver capable of making the RC213v win: Marc Márquez. And on him rests the entire destiny of the world's leading manufacturer in MotoGP. On the staff side, we blame the unique electronics and reassure that the problem is only temporary. But Cal Crutchlow sees broader: “ Honda has a problem with the chassis, engine and electronics ". In fact, everything needs to be reviewed! No stranger to metaphors, the LCR driver even said at the end of free practice in Brno that he would spend 200.000 euros to buy the GP14.2 of Barbera to improve his ordinary.
When we think about it, we say to ourselves that Marc Márquez hurts Honda as much as Stoner did it to Ducati. Despite the titles and victories, the illusion of a good motorcycle is maintained when everything comes down to the immense talent of a rider: “ Marc is in another dimension »Insists Crutchlow on Sportrider. " Things are experienced differently at home and at Dani Pedrosa's. You just have to see where Marc finished in qualifying in Brno and where we finished. He was in pole position and we were ninth and tenth. I looked at Marc's telemetry and could see that he was braking twenty meters after me. I tried to push my limit by just two meters and I fell ».
It is also true that Márquez drove with another chassis. But the Brit dismisses the argument: “ it's true but he would be on my bike and he would win too and I wouldn't do better than now. If Márquez rode for another motorcycle brand, he would already be at the helm of a lot of titles ". The last sentence hurts for Honda, but beyond the two victories in the rain Miller and Crutchlow, we need to look at other figures.
These two regret 16 falls each since the start of the season. These are the two riders who fell the most from the MotoGP field. On the second HRC machine, Pedrosa qualified fifteenth, tenth, twelfth and ninth during the last four meetings finished in twelfth, eighth, seventh and twelfth again. No offense to Shuhei Nakamoto, Marc Marquez is indeed the tree that hides the forest at Honda.
