Let it be said: you can have missed all your objectives announced at the start of the year, and still finish this one with a smile on your face. A demonstration made by the boss of the LCR-Honda team who planned to see his top driver Cal Crutchlow in the top 5 at the end of the championship. And his second resident Nakagami finish first among the rookies. Missed.
Certainly, but there is still reason to be satisfied while one of the goals set was missed due to a serious injury. The one who won seven Grands Prix in 125 specifies in fact on speedweek : " with Cal, we wanted to be in the top five in the championship. And until he fell from Phillip Island, we were able to fight for that. If we hadn't been unlucky, we might have made it. We could even have considered being in the top four. If I had to rate Cal's season on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it an 8 ».
With three podiums divided into a victory in Argentina, a second place at Motegi and a third place at Misano, the year was not all disappointments for the Englishman. For Japanese Nakagami, on the other hand… 33 points scored against 50 Morbidely, the best beginner of the season… “ being first among the rookies was the idea. But we didn't get there. Morbidelli and Syahrin were simply faster " recognize Cecchinello.
« But I'm satisfied, because Nakagami worked on his weaknesses. Including that of his performance with soft tires during qualifying. In this area, he has made progress. The second weakness was the first laps of the race... He must continue to work on himself. He needs more aggression to better manage the first rounds. He also needs to work on his skills to overtake an opponent. We will take care of it for the coming season ».
On this level, the Japanese will be able to count on Giacomo Guidotti as team leader. He worked alongside Dani Pedrosa at Repsol-Honda in 2017 and 2018. Until then, Nakagami had Ramon Aurín at his side. But the latter left to find Jorge Lorenzo at Repsol-Honda, a team where he worked in 2015 and 2016 for Pedrosa.
