No comments on Sepang sessions...? - Page 7

 

Bruce Richmond wrote:


Bike? What bike?

 

pablo wrote:

Oh, Pablo. Let's look at this from a reality standpoint for just one
moment. Colin Edwards has done seven years in MotoGP, and three of those
were on a legitimate factory team (I don't count his year at Aprilia).
In that time he has finished 4th once and 5th twice, and twice he was
the top rider on a lease team and a lease bike, including last year. In
2009 he was 5th behind the four Aliens, and ahead of Dovizioso on a
factory bike for the factory Honda team, and Elias on what was always
reported to be a factory Honda, whatever updates he might or might not
have received, and was 50 points ahead of de Angelis, or 45% more points
than the second lease team/bike guy. And by all reports he had been
supplanted as the number one guy by Toseland at Tech 3 in 2009; Toseland
finished 9 positions behind Colin with barely over half the points. For
that he should have gotten bounced from the series?

Now let's look at Checa. He won two races, one in 1996 and one in 1998,
on lease Hondas when Honda totally dominated the series - In 94-99 Honda
won six straight championships and 78% of all the races. And in 2000
lease team machines actually won a majority of all the races, which is
the only time that's happened in the factory era of GP's premier class.
Any unbiased look at GP would conclude that this era was the weakest
from a rider standpoint in the last 30 years at minimum. In 1998 he
finished fourth in the championship, the best of his career;  otherwise,
the only time he finished in the top five was in 2002, when he had one
of only four competitive 990 four strokes and still finished only 5th.
During 99-05 he had factory rides every year, seven straight years, and
didn't win a race, didn't do better than that one 5th place.

Now you laud Spies and predict he'll get a top five in the championship.
But that's exactly what Edwards did last year, on the same satellite
team. Do I smell a massive double standard here?

Oh, and Checa didn't ever weigh 10 pounds more than Edwards, based on
anything I've ever seen; Colin is currently listed on MotoGP.com at 145
pounds (66kg), which is the lightest he's ever been listed there (he's
been listed at 67kg previously, and Yamaha now lists him at 69kg), and
Checa was not ever listed at more than 152 (69kg); Ten Kate listed him
at 150lbs (68kg). But of course total fabrication of "fact" is your
stock in trade...


I find this sort of (assuredly reluctant) recognition of Spies'
abilities by the Euro view rather amusing, honestly. From my viewpoint
as a long-time very dedicated observer of the AMA scene, I see very
little that predicts that Spies' abilities and prospects in GP should be
considered materially better than Hayden's. What Spies has going for him
is more experience and maturity when he made the Euro-jump, and the
interim step of WSB. That and his battles with Mladin may have given him
a greater level of core confidence than Hayden had going into the
hornet's nest, but I see a no greater determination than Nick has shown.
What it all comes down to is opportunity and expectations, and there is
no doubt at all that as soon as Spies stumbles, even slightly, the wrath
of the Euro GP press will descend on him like no one else. Had Hayden
landed in WSB instead of MotoGP in 2003, I see now reason to believe
that he wouldn't have been any less successful than Spies was, given an
equal ride (which of course didn't exist that year - if you weren't on a
Ducati, you didn't win a race), and certainly not had he arrived there
after a couple more seasons battling Mladin in the AMA, which is what
Spies had. I just don't see any material difference between the two.

Of course the Euro view has to reluctantly give him his due, because
he's actually accomplished a great deal on their hallowed turf. So has
Hayden in actuality, but it's easier to trash him because he's now spent
three winless seasons on the midget DaniBike on inferior Michelins and
on the Stoner-only career-killer Ducati (well, not a career-killer if
one is a 125/250-bred Italian, it seems, based on Melandri). Spies will
fair no better if he doesn't perform miracles on a lease team on a
satellite bike, and in MotoGP it's simply a fact that one doesn't
perform miracles in that situation - how many races have been won on
satellite bikes/teams in the last eight years? Gibernau's 8 wins came on
factory tackle, which leaves one with Biaggi's 3 (maybe), Tamada's 2
(which must be credited to his superior Bridgestones on those
occasions), Barros' one (in mixed conditions), Meladri's 5 (on the best
of the Honda non-factory machines?), and Elias' one (the most legit
case, although with the factory Hondas out, Rossi struggling, Edwards
protecting, and Bridgestone not contending). Machines like Spies' simply
don't win in MotoGP, not really. And what happens if he spends 10-11 at
Tech 3 going winless? It's not like he got a Lorenzo-like opportunity
(no one else except Pedrosa and Rossi really has in the last decade),
but will Europe remember that? Of course not, the Great Double Standard
arrived with Dorna in 1992 and nothing has ever been the same since.

It's very possible that he will be gone before MotoGP ever gets to
factory 1000s (2013?), or that Europe will claim that the only reason he
remains there is Dorna's investment in the American rounds (a la
Hayden?). Both of which will surely be unfair, but also entirely par for
the course in today's commercial GP...