Cal Crutchlow is the spearhead of the LCR Honda team which evolves under the direction of an enthusiastic Lucio Cecchinello. In 2016, the Briton brought two victories to the satellite structure which, as a result, was expected at the turn of the 2017 campaign. A poorly negotiated turn since the results were barely there. So much so that the talent of the same Crutchlow is seen put into perspective by his boss who looks back on his two victories two years ago while regretting the mistakes of the past year...
Lucio Cecchinello is passionate but he is also a boss who looks objectively at the situation of his team and his driver. On speedweek, he thus brings down to earth the one who remains his first pilot, Cal Crutchlow : “ first, we must not forget that his two victories in 2016 were acquired in special circumstances. In Australia, Márquez had crashed and in Brno he was the only one to take the hard front tire ". A reminder of the facts which could give the Englishman the feeling of a cold shower…
But the Italian continues: “ we were hoping to get more podiums in 2017. But we didn't do so bad in the end. Cal was third in Argentina, fourth in Texas, Assen and Silverstone. To this we must add some fifth positions. If we hadn't had some big problems, we could have regularly played between third and fifth place, which is not so bad for a satellite team ».
Big problems? Cecchinello decodes: “ I believe that we could have avoided a few falls which influenced the final ranking. But to be honest, no one expected Zarco to be this competitive. Even without the falls, I doubt we could have beaten him. But we will try in 2018 ».
The Frenchman finished sixth in the championship with 62 points ahead of Crutchlow who finished in ninth place. It will be recalled that during the 2017 off-season tests, the Englishman specified that the double Moto2 World Champion was not one of the best riders in the world and that the performances observed were mainly due to the potential of the Yamaha. In 2018, the Briton will have a teammate: Nakagami.
