The ban on wings in MotoGP at the end of this season. This is a subject that we thought was definitively closed since mass has been said. Except, not quite. Behind the scenes, the breath of this divergence of view continues to ruffle the bosses of the official teams. The demonstration of a tense atmosphere in the paddock.
The banning of the aerodynamic appendage raised the wind of anger at Ducati who accused Honda of manipulation. On the eve of his national Grand Prix at Motegi, it is now the winged coat of arms which is upwind against the Italians' allegations. Bird names are not far away. Nakamoto has just called Ducati a liar.
Comments relayed by SportRider whose authorship goes to the vice-president of the HRC himself, Shuhei Nakamoto. We know the man is leaving for other, more honorary positions within Honda.
Here is his parting gift: “There will be no wings from 2017 solely due to Ducati. They implied that Honda was behind the ban, that we had led a campaign against the wings to punish them for an alleged aerodynamic advantage of the Ducati, which is just a big lie.
To one accusation, here is another, according to the watered sprinkler technique.
We remember that the question of wings first arose during a start of the Argentine Grand Prix where we saw Iannone lose one of his wings when coming into contact with Márquez's body. The leather and the man had not suffered from this encounter but it had upset Dani Pedrosa who made the shocking parallel between these appendages and knife blades.
Then, some riders reported aerodynamic turbulence while following the Ducatis and it was Márquez who most often reported the discomfort. Two official Honda riders while, for his part, Nakamoto san said that Honda had already tested a machine with optimized aerodynamics in the last century. The machine had proven to be extremely fast, but also physically impossible for a human being to handle.. Comments made the day after a British Grand Prix at the end of which both Iannone and Dovizioso finished their performance with their forearms in ruins.
It is therefore clear that the subject is above all a opposition between Honda and Ducati. The Italian brand, for its part, swears that the fins help with safety by keeping the motorcycle on the ground while the ban will deprive the motorcycle industry of a development path. One last argument that irritates Shuheï Nakamoto: “this is also a lie. Have you ever seen a production Ducati with fins? No. On the other hand, fuel consumption and electronics management are two areas that really concern the average motorcyclist. But Ducati requested and obtained an exemption for its motorcycles to have a 22 liter tank”. An allusion which shows that the schism between Ducati and Honda has lasted much longer than the advent of wings.
So, did Honda want to clip Ducati's wings literally and figuratively to bring a rival that was a little too dangerous into line? The vice-president of the HRC swears no and insists: “Ducati has accused Honda of being responsible for banning spoilers in order to deprive them of an aerodynamic advantage, but this is absolutely false. If it's banned, it's Ducati's fault. ".
All the Japanese manufacturers have made proposals for developments on the fins, their shapes, their twist, their materials, but according to Shuhei Nakamoto: « It was just no, and no, and no. All the Japanese factories agreed and Aprilia, in some respects, too, but Ducati did not want to discuss the matter. It was their way or not.”
And we know the rest. A version which is however not exactly the same as that of Aprilia who was also a driving force in this matter. In any case, this is the atmosphere set on the eve of the Japanese Grand Prix…
