Dark Angel
Still kickin' it!
When will HRC Learn??
The Honda company has long been hailed as the best manufacturer of motorcycles ? whether of on-road, off-road or racing designation. Surprisingly, while the overall quality and innovation inherent in Honda machines continue to evolve, man-management skills within HRC don?t seem to have developed at the same rate.
When Valentino Rossi ended his liaison with HRC, he wasn?t slow to criticise the ?robotic? attitude of his former employers towards their factory riders. HRC?s insistence that ?the machine is more important that the rider? not only soured the Rossi relationship, but it also forced Honda into a ?who knows best? battle with a former employee who dared to defect to Honda?s greatest rival, Yamaha.
Now, for the second year in succession, HRC?s attempt to bully Rossi (and Yamaha) into submission by flooding the MotoGP grid with RCV?s has ended in total humiliation, and one might have expected a Honda re-think, in terms of managing its relationships with its employees. DOH! Did I say ?re-think?? For two years, now, the RCV development programme has been in disarray and now nobody seems able to realise the full, on-track capability of the machine.
Melandri teases us with glimpses of his true potential, while Hayden?s youth and spectacular riding style make him stand out from the crowd. Biaggi can?t ride the RCV ? and looks as if Gibernau has spat his dummy out, saying he won?t ride the RCV. Bayliss never even got started ? and it looks like Barros is finished. These are the some of the best riders in the world, yet none of them have achieved any enduring consistency on a bike that was considered unbeatable when Rossi was the pilot.
Heard the latest? Honda tried to force Chris Vermeulen into another year in WSB ? now he?s gone to Suzuki!
When will they ever learn?
DA
The Honda company has long been hailed as the best manufacturer of motorcycles ? whether of on-road, off-road or racing designation. Surprisingly, while the overall quality and innovation inherent in Honda machines continue to evolve, man-management skills within HRC don?t seem to have developed at the same rate.
When Valentino Rossi ended his liaison with HRC, he wasn?t slow to criticise the ?robotic? attitude of his former employers towards their factory riders. HRC?s insistence that ?the machine is more important that the rider? not only soured the Rossi relationship, but it also forced Honda into a ?who knows best? battle with a former employee who dared to defect to Honda?s greatest rival, Yamaha.
Now, for the second year in succession, HRC?s attempt to bully Rossi (and Yamaha) into submission by flooding the MotoGP grid with RCV?s has ended in total humiliation, and one might have expected a Honda re-think, in terms of managing its relationships with its employees. DOH! Did I say ?re-think?? For two years, now, the RCV development programme has been in disarray and now nobody seems able to realise the full, on-track capability of the machine.
Melandri teases us with glimpses of his true potential, while Hayden?s youth and spectacular riding style make him stand out from the crowd. Biaggi can?t ride the RCV ? and looks as if Gibernau has spat his dummy out, saying he won?t ride the RCV. Bayliss never even got started ? and it looks like Barros is finished. These are the some of the best riders in the world, yet none of them have achieved any enduring consistency on a bike that was considered unbeatable when Rossi was the pilot.
Heard the latest? Honda tried to force Chris Vermeulen into another year in WSB ? now he?s gone to Suzuki!
When will they ever learn?
DA
