Brno Review: Where is Honda?

Honda has always made parts available to its works MotoGP team, Repsol Honda, after the Suzuka 8-Hour race in Japan, the most important and proudest race for the Japanese.

The early August endurance race means that Brno is always the place where development parts arrive. I always said that Honda has always got half a second on the shelf back in Japan, and if it really needs it, the engineers will bolt it on to the bikes to shun any manufacturer who dares get close.

Bingo. Honda won every riders' title but one from 1994 through to 2003. The four-strokes turned up and it blitzed everyone from the off with a wacky 'it'll never work' V5. Honda was at its imperial best.

Then Valentino Rossi and Jerry Burgess left Honda to try fresh pastures at rival Yamaha, a manufacturer who had been there but never really looked like championship contender.

Valentino Rossi on the 2003 Repsol Honda © Reuters

We all enjoyed Rossi being the best rider on not the best bike. We revelled in watching the bike doing things it shouldn't do - like win nine races in 2004. It was an incredible time to be involved in the sport. They were the good old days.

"In order to beat Rossi we must make a faster motorcycle," said the Honda bosses upon Rossi's announcement that he was to leave.

And here we are in the midst of 2007, and we are still waiting for Honda to reappear. Is it just me, or did no one notice that Honda actually won everything last year? Riders, manufacturers and teams titles - the latter by crushing margins.

The intra-team 'disassociation' peaked in Portugal last year, with Dani Pedrosa endearing himself to Americans the world over by knocking off championship leader and teammate Nicky Hayden.

"It was only when we went to Motegi 2006 (when Mr Fukui, the President of The Honda Motor Company was present) that parts then arrived for the next race," Hayden said last weekend, referring to his frustration with a clutch that hadn't work since the first race of the year on a development bike.

Talking to others close to Honda, they have been from pillar to post with the pace of development of the RC 212 V V4.

One insider told me of his frustration in July at the lack of direction at the top of the company as it tries to find its way back to the front.

"There are people at the top who have just not got the fire in them to fight that last inch," he said.

Honda is royalty in this sport. Anything it produces is good. If it made lighters, it'd be the most amazing lighter you'd ever have laid your eyes on, and yet it got this 800cc racing bike - the very thing that Honda is genius at - wrong somewhere.

Umpteen chassis, engine upgrades and shortening of mileage on engines have produced just a single victory for Dani Pedrosa at the Sachsenring this year when Michelin got it right - a rare occasion in 2007, and an unimaginable statistic 12 races into a season that has had a regulation change.

"Yeah, but look at the NSR 500 and some of their 250s in their first years," argued a Honda person. "Some of those bikes struggled too, only to flourish the year after."

2007 Repsol Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa © DPPI

I just hope Honda can get it right next year. They have to get it right, and I want them to get it right as Pedrosa is one hell of a rider who is capable of beating Rossi, Stoner and Lorenzo more often than not.

Can you imagine the frustration of Nicky Hayden as the reigning World Champion, slogging his guts out for more laps than anyone else all winter, only to get three podiums after twelve races and sit 157 points off the championship lead? Staggering!

The problem is not all Honda's in MotoGP, as we know Michelin is hardly covering itself in glory - the French company now trails Bridgestone four race wins to eight.

But there is still uncomfortable evidence of Honda being behind the eight-ball in 125cc, 250cc, even AMA SuperX, let alone Formula One. The one place Honda is winning is in SuperSport and SuperBike - but it let go of hopefully soon-to-be 2007 World SBK Champion James Toseland to Yamaha. How does that work?

It's easy to be happy that Ducati, a European manufacturer, is about to win the manufacturers' title for Europe for the first time since MV Augusta in 1973, but Ducati has the best rider on the best bike on the best tyres at present.

On one hand, we need close racing that is much more entertaining than the follow-the-electronics-of-the-leader exhibition that was put on over the weekend at Brno.

Sure, Michelin needs to pull its socks up, and Michelin riders need to stop whining and remember how badly some Bridgestone teams suffered in their early days when they were eight seconds a lap off the pace at the end of some races.

But Honda and Yamaha also need to pull their socks up before they get overtaken by the ever-strengthening Suzuki or Kawasaki. And I never in a million years thought I'd write that.

Please Mr Fukui, don't make me write it again.