Wrapping up the MotoGP title early allows for a viewing of the season from some distance, from a different perspective, a chance to see some of the other realities that the 2016 campaign has brought into focus. The season has been more than just a showcase for the otherworldly talents of Marc Marquez. For those willing to look a little deeper, it showcases some other truths about racing in general, the industry of Grand Prix racing, and where Grand Prix racing fits into the broader picture of those who pay for it. It shows that HRC may just be straight racer gangsta, and that's meant to be a compliment. The object of the day, after all, isn't entertainment or fair competition. It's beating the others and demonstrating, beyond doubt, that you are best.
Consider:
- The spec electronics package hasn't done a thing to make the racing better. Not a thing. Many of the races have been runaways, with virtually no lead changes past the halfway point. Take away the unpredictable weather of 2016, injuries and the frightening tire lottery that Michelin has hurled at the competitors, and you see the same or even bigger gaps at the front of the field.
Interestingly, an argument could be made that the spec electronics have made things worse, because teams and factories no longer have the wide array of capabilities of last year's electronics to refine their bikes to the edge of their performance abilities. You could argue that the spec electronics have given satellite teams a better shot at the wins. But that ignores the fact that it has been one factory that has made the best use of the rules package this year, and the success of only that manufacturer's satellite teams has been at the expense of the other factory squads.
In Australia, on a satellite Honda, Cal Crutchlow straight-up, flat-out beat the best that the Yamaha, Suzuki and Ducati factory teams could throw at him. Only those ignorant of how racing works ever believed that spec electronics would "level the playing field" or "make things more competitive" at the front.
- HRC didn't even bother starting to sort out its electronics by the start of the season. It was clear, when Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were complaining about a lack of acceleration, that horsepower wasn't the problem - it's never the problem on a modern MotoGP bike. It's getting the power to the ground. Last year's RC213V had a honed-to-perfection set of electronic rider aids that tamed the wheelies. This year's crappier electronics package wasn't sorted at the beginning of the season, so the bike wheelied and the riders couldn't get on the gas like the Ducati and Yamaha riders could.
HRC's attitude seemed to be, we'll fix it when we get around to it.
And that attitude is kind of understandable.
There was no consensus as to when the wings would be banned - not if they would, but when. No sense in developing an electronics suite that worked only with an aero package that would be thrown in the dumpster in a month.
There were the unpredictable Michelin tires to sort out.
And you have to remember that a race team isn't a stand-alone entity. It's part of a huge corporation, fighting for money with all of the other parts of that huge corporation. And it's hard for a race team to make a plea for funding and resources to make the crappy spec electronics do "X" when someone else in the board room says, "Hey, didn't we give you money to do 'X' with the package you had last year? Where did that money go? And don't we have a bike in the production lineup that already does 'X'?" It's embarrassing for the race team to explain that the MotoGP rules now ban the company's upcoming CBR1000RR's electronics package that will cost - literally - a mere few hundred dollars per unit.
So, in straight gangsta fashion, HRC sat and waited, completely confident that it would get everything sorted out in time to take the championship. Sometimes, the boldest move is to stand still and wait for the exact moment to attack. And the definition of gangsta is knowing that when you do move, you will crush the competition.
It took Honda and HRC until the post-Brno test to get around to sorting out the electronics package, according to Marquez. By then, the wings were heading for the recycle bin, so Honda stuck a pair of big ones on the front of the bike and called it a day on wing research. Marquez was starting to understand the Michelins. And it was clearer and clearer what the engineers needed to do with the spec electronics.
Honda now has won seven of the nine last rounds on a bike that the "experts" criticized as an ill-handling slug at the beginning of the year. With no mid-season changes to the engine spec allowed, the thing is now virtually a match in a straight line for the fastest bikes in the field, the Ducatis. And it handles well enough that not only the factory riders, but the satellite riders, can get the thing going well.
Sometimes gangsta is sitting on the sidelines, knowing that when the time is right, you can stride in and let everyone else on the grid know exactly who the 800-pound gorilla is.
