At Honda, this year, it's not that. The Marc Marquez load-bearing wall gave way like his humerus plate and, since then, the HRC has been a field of ruin. The official Repsol motorcycles close the starting gates and have difficulty accessing the points zone while on the side of the satellite team, Cal Crutchlow does not act as understudy and in fact only as an extra. Even now the subscribers are absent. His boss Lucio Cecchinello is already looking for a replacement for Barcelona…
Compartment syndrome for Cal Crutchlow sounds like a symptom of the end of a career. At least at Honda, because for the future, the Englishman swears that he has lost none of his motivation or his determination. Moreover, he positioned himself in front of the motor home Aprilia, in case. The fact remains that because of his operated forearm, he missed Misano1, will miss it Misano2 this weekend and probably even Barcelona which follows.
There is nothing official about this point of view, but his boss Lucio Cecchinello have no illusions. So much so that he has already requested from Honda the name of the freelancer. An option which was categorically refused to him: “ we tried to ask Álvaro Bautista, but the Japanese want him to focus on the Superbike program. They don't want to take the risk of injury during a possible replacement. We are forced to look for a driver for Barcelona and we are in constant contact with Cal to see if he can come back ».
“Alberto Puig made an offer to Pedrosa”
Fortunately for the LCR team, its second driver Nakagami shows himself in his best light this season. In view of the good results obtained by the Japanese with the 2019 bike, Honda gave him for Misano test the 2020 motorcycle that Stefan Bradl, its tester, uses normally. “ We tested the 2020 bike but it fell with it and we went back to the 2019 version to find something better in terms of configuration »Comments Cecchinello.
The latter takes the opportunity to regret the absence of a real test pilot. A sensitive subject since it leads to talking about Dani Pedrosa, who left Honda for KTM, to whom he provides great services… “ We probably need a higher level test pilot. Pedrosa has made his choice. Alberto Puig made him an offer, but Dani needed a change of scenery ". Said Puig is therefore not to blame on this subject…
