We usually spend hours transcribing interviews, but sometimes a few sentences are enough to greatly advance our knowledge of a particular issue.
This was the case this weekend at Le Mans where, after the race, we went to interview an engineer who is responsible for several Hondas. Certainly, after the crashes of 4 out of 5 machines, it was not the best time for this… but exactly!
“No, no, I don’t want to talk. Anyway, what are we going to say? There's nothing new! The problems we encounter today, we already had last year; lack of motor skills and lack of power. However, they were masked because the drivers made up in braking what they lost in acceleration. The Bridgestones allowed it. With the Michelins, you can do it for 5 or 6 laps, then you make a mistake. »
Wow… How many press releases or interviews would it have taken to really uncover this?
Thus, the Hondas, developed almost exclusively for Marc Marquez, the favorite driver of the Tokyo firm, have gradually changed to favor the braking phase, thus adapting perfectly to the driving style of #93. But not the others...
This had already been the case at Suter, with the consequences that we know; only Marc Marquez managed to make the most of the Swiss machine designed for him, the other drivers, especially the less heavy brakers, being faster in Kalex. In three years, it was the end of the Suter adventure...
We already found the same phenomenon at Honda last year, only Marc Marquez can really stand out with his exceptional “forward” driving.
But today, with the arrival of Michelin tires, the situation is even more difficult, and even the leader of the winged troops has difficulty fighting against the Yamahas which are driven a little less with the front tire. Let's not talk about other Honda riders who regularly get trapped trying to place their bike where it should be...
So of course, no one could have predicted that the Michelin front tires would offer a little less margin of safety in case of extreme use as Marc Marquez knows how to do. But Today it seems inevitable that Honda technicians will favor the rear axle of their motorcycles a little more. for find of motor skills, even if it means that Marc Marquez stands out a little less from the crowd. It's not Dani Pedrosa, with his very fine driving, who will complain about it!
PS: obviously, the situation is undoubtedly more complex than described in this article, but we nevertheless wanted to question you about what seems to us to constitute at least one of the elements explaining the current difficulties encountered by all Honda drivers.
