One word: Riders. The team would have done better pulling Doohan or Kosinski out of retirement over Kiyonari. He was great in his day, but he just doesn't, and won't have the goods. Camier is still hot and cold - and nearly freezing today. I hope both can pull something out of the very small bag for Races Two and Three. After that, the team has three weeks to take stock of itself. Management will be rolling heads!
Great weekend! The best bike on the field, plus a very experienced pilot = a good recipe to punish kawi. Leon Haslam is very brave and is not afraid to attack Rea where he wants. But he needs to adapt. But this time. And time is the loss of points. Yamaha looks much better than in the previous season and will fight for the TOP 5 or even higher. Chaz gone will go into the shadow of his partner as it was in his time with Tom Sykes when Rea started to win. Honda is the same as last season. P.S. I think Rea is very angry now and I think it will do him good and heightens intrigue and shows for us.
The grid is small. So pleased the ducati is looking good but it's a long season . I'm a bit of a haslem fan so fingers crossed. I hope ten kate arrive with the suzuki . Now someone please sort honda. I like Leon we are same height but I'm a fair bit rounder ahem but come on give him a decent bike . It's just not good enough. Why isn't it decked in trick moriwaki bits. He'll why don't hrc do it themselves. Oh yeah big 99 and 93 wages to pay and pamper.
Bautista is a class act, former 250gp champion, the duke looks good but I still believe Rea will come through As for the fireblade, well lets be totally honest, Honda will have to throw some serious money at it and put some decent pilot on Rob
I have to agree with Nigel on this one. The riders are the problem. We had amazing Japanese riders 20 years ago on Superbikes (Haga, Yanagawa etc) surely there must be some new ones coming through the Japanese system. I’m not discrediting Kiyo or Camier, but I think HRC should have gambled on some younger talent.
Takumi Takahashi would be an obvious choice having won the Japanese Superbike title on the Honda in 2017 and spearheading HRC's Suzuka 8 hr campaign on the blade surely makes him a great choice? Not sure what his commitments are for this season and is probably already contracted up. I bet he gets brought in should Camier or Kiyo get injured......which is highly likely......
Judging by the fact that now represents Honda in the WSBK - she just now is not interested. With all that it implies.
Sure, MotoGP will be Honda's priority, but it does seem, so far, that Honda is making a substantial investment in WSB. It may well be that the 'boardroom' is worried that they're being left behind (in sales) by the likes of Kawasaki and Ducati.
