The position of Lucio Cecchinello's team is evolving very favorably compared to the HRC. This year, Cal Crutchlow was a satellite pilot, but he will become an official pilot next year. This means better hardware and much more financial support.
Cecchinello will thus be able to have the means to hire a second driver, who will be Takaaki Nakagami according to Honda's wishes. There will therefore be a solid development team with Crutchlow rather in charge of performance development, while Nakagami should logically be more oriented towards validation tests of a longer duration.
The Honda system in MotoGP is therefore currently organized, with a support team, a bit like Pramac Racing for Ducati, while Team Marc VDS continues its activity in parallel. There is also talk of a test team based in Europe, with perhaps Stefan bradl as the main driver, a bit on the model of Mika Kallio at KTM.
Could this new device be effective, according to Lucio Cecchinello? “ It's not my job to give advice to HRC, replies the Italian. Besides, the previous system gave us an opportunity. Due to the lack of a test team in Europe, Honda had to distribute the new components to several riders to test and evaluate these parts. At least three pilots were needed, including Cal. This system worked well. »
Test times will be reduced according to the new regulations. It will then be necessary to try many parts during the Grand Prix weekends. “ We didn't test much during the Grand Prix in 2017, specifies Lucio. We did this mainly during the five private test days, the four IRTA tests and the three Monday tests. »
“We must not forget that Honda had a test team in Japan with Hiroshi Aoyama. Maybe they tested too much in Motegi so far, they should probably ride more in Europe, that's something Honda needs to decide. »
“Honda preferred to wait until October before making a decision because there were constant discussions about the new testing restrictions. Since the Motegi GP everything is now clear in this regard. »
The distribution of tasks may be quite complicated at the start between the test team and Lucio Cecchinello's team. The availability of each party will not be easy to calculate based on the provisions of the new regulations. This new system will probably only reach its maximum efficiency in 2019.
Photo © LCR
Source: Speedweek. com
