MotoGP Review: The haves and the not-winning

Time to deliver

Valentino Rossi won again at the weekend, victory number 96 in grand prix racing, title number six in MotoGP and eight overall. He is just incredible, as once more he leaves us all aghast as to his abilities, some 11 years after winning his first title at Brno in August 1997.

This weekend at Phillip Island in Australia, Rossi should be well and truly unleashed as he's got nothing to lose. Hell, if we were in the old days he wouldn't turn up to these remaining races if he wasn't paid enough start money!

Bizarrely, the atmosphere was a bit flat once Valentino crossed the line to take the title at Motegi on Sunday. Others in the paddock agreed with me that it was a bit of a flat race once Rossi had got ahead of Stoner. Maybe the autumn of the season and many hours on planes were taking their toll, but one person who was happy was Dani Pedrosa. Or was he?

Pedrosa's podium at Motegi was amazingly, his first since a second at Assen in late June, and of course his first podium on Bridgestones since the controversial switch. The question is, has he vindicated his decision to go Bridgestone after giving Michelin the flick?

There was outrage in the paddock at Misano when the announcement was made by Honda and Repsol that their golden boy was going to ditch Michelin with five races to go, and take up the Bridgestones that everyone wanted to be on. The irony is that, just like trendy nightclubs, once you've tagged onto a good idea, by the time you've got it up and running, it might just be on the cusp of being out of date.

Rossi made sure that his switch to Bridgestones over the winter was a measured and solid decision that he totally vindicated with eight victories from 15 races and a world title.

So where does this leave Pedrosa going into the all important 2009 season? Why is it important? That's a very simple answer. It's his fourth season with HRC in MotoGP and he has to win the title for them.

Has to.

Nicky Hayden won the title for Honda in his fourth season at HRC and Hayden had to learn all the tracks and the whole 'European thing' in the process. Pedrosa knows the tracks and has home only a couple of hours flight away from the majority of circuits that make up the calendar. Hayden certainly didn't have that luxury living on the other side of the planet.

The main point is what HRC expect from their riders. Alex Criville joined Repsol Honda before Repsol had such power to tell HRC what tyres they want their rider to ride.

"The first year they said to me that I had to enjoy, work hard, watch, and learn. The second year was a bit different in that I was told to fight for podiums, but in my third year I had to go and fight for the championship."

Criville had an ultra-hard teammate in Mick Doohan, winner of 54 grands prix and a five-time world champion, from the very season he joined the team. Hardly an easy prospect having just got a works contract in your pocket, but Criville dug in and fought Doohan to win once in 1995 and twice in 1996. That may not sound a lot, but to battle against Doohan in the same team was a hell of a feat.

"There is pressure put on your shoulders to win there."

Criville went on to win the world title in 1999.

Engineers are not emotional souls, instead preferring 0.01 seconds here and a gram less somewhere else, but when I mentioned to Pete Benson, the crew chief to Nicky Hayden, that they won the title in their fourth year, he hadn't realised they had and that Pedrosa's fourth year was 2009.

Made him grin a little, that nugget, as there is zero friendship from one side of the Repsol Honda garage to the other. Zero.

"The wall down the centre of the garage has been there for a while, it's just only gone up in the last couple of races." Is a regular line coming from many on the Hayden side of the pit box...

Pedrosa is not forthcoming with his data to other Honda riders but it has become apparent that some set-up data has come from other bikes into his garage, rather than the other way around.

One very experienced source at Honda said quite logically that: "The only way for (Andrea) Dovizioso and Pedrosa to beat Valentino Rossi next year is to work together." That somehow might not be the case if Pedrosa doesn't help out and nurture the speed and lap times with Dovi.

"I prefer a good relationship, but if he doesn't want it, it doesn't matter." said Dovizioso pointedly during his confirmation of being a works Repsol Honda rider on Friday in Japan.

Ominous words that got the press corps rubbing their hands together for next year.

And as Rossi has proved this season, if you are on the same tyre he is, you're going to struggle to beat his sheer riding skill. In 2006 he had too many problems with his Yamaha, something they admitted to after the race on Sunday, and last year the Ducati on Bridgestones was far too strong for the Italian.

So, the task ahead for Pedrosa. He's started his battle to turn the bike into a Bridgestone bike two months ahead of the first day of 2009, which is on Monday October 27th - the day after the Valencia GP. But Honda have heeded Pedrosa's every want and need in recent years by focusing attention on him, capitulating to get Bridgestone tyres and kicking out Michelin, and even making Nicky Hayden develop the new 800cc bike during the last year of 990cc, forcing the American to dig ultra deep and win the title through anger at being used as a drone.

The 800cc bike was obviously built for Pedrosa, but insiders say Hayden didn't ride the new 800cc bike on the Monday after the Japanese GP of 2006 when it came out for the first time, the American instead preferring to concentrate on his championship push. They say it was a major day in the development of the bike, but Hayden chose not to ride it, resulting in the tiny little 800cc RC212V that now exists.

Hard words and a difficult decision for Hayden to make at the time, but he would rightly say it was a good one in that he won the title and a place in the history books.

It is now time for all the stern, frowning, dour faces from the No.2 Repsol Honda side of the garage to have the final laugh in the paddock, win next year's title, and get their own place in the history books.

The best ever

Valentino Rossi's victory in the 2008 championship has now transcended every single rider less for Giacomo Agostini in the big class. That's more than Doohan (five from 1994-98) and it leaves the others relatively nowhere.

It is of course difficult to compare eras, as things are never on a level playing field, but in my view he really is the best ever. Reasoning? Quite simply that if he was racing in the same eras as the Agos or the Mike Hailwoods, then he too would be racing in two or three races a day and therefore would be winning potentially double the amount of races.

Yes, I know that they had less races in the championship in those Ago days, but there was less stress in the job without the testing overseas, never mind the whole PR thing. There was, of course, less money involved, but that's another discussion.

Rossi has the best attitude and personality that any sport has going for it at present. He's just like Frankie Dettori in his skill, wit, and sheer skill to transcend the sport and make it so much more attractive to people who aren't petrolheads. And what's more, he's been winning championships for 11 years, with potentially still more to come with his two-year contract tucked under his arm.

The guy is just brilliant and it's been a pleasure to work with him, commentating on every grand prix race he's ever competed in. When I asked him the favour if he'd come up to the commentary box in Germany, he did it to return the favour and so he could have a nose around another aspect of a grand prix paddock. He was due to stay for a few minutes, but he stayed until the end of the race. Brilliant!

And now we go to Phillip Island, a true racer's track where he had a ten-second penalty in 2003 and still won the race. "It was the first race that I did at 100 per cent." he said afterwards. What more can he do then?!

Enjoy these Golden days.

One size to fit all

The single tyre supplier for 2009 was announced over the Motegi weekend, much to the horror and disappointment of many in the paddock.

Some were angry, some were just resigned and tired of the seemingly never ending discussions about boring black things. I, as an emotional racing type, was certainly in the latter category.

The question is why has it come about when Bridgestone and Michelin have made it very clear that they don't want a single tyre set up? They both know there is little PR to be gained from that set up, as in Formula One, less for when a tyre blows up or one is painted gold - as was the case at Valencia F1 in August.

"Things are a bit desperate when it comes to getting your name around by painting a tyre gold," said one Bridgestone person at the weekend.

Both Michelin and Bridgestone genuinely want competition. If thoughts towards a single supply are going on then it must be high up in the boardrooms of Bridgestone, rather than those of Michelin as it's the French who don't have much else to do if they lose MotoGP. Bridgestone have F1, GP2, and IRL.

But here's the twist. Surely Michelin letting the Spaniard go to Bridgestone before the end of the season must have had some sort of caveat in that there would be no single tyre rule to leave them to continue in MotoGP.

If that promise was there, and there is word that it was, Michelin have been dumped on from a very great height as the swingometer says they could very easily be knocked out of MotoGP. Dorna's interest is to keep their all-important Spanish market buoyant and if Pedrosa is getting beaten because he's struggling with tyres, then they will get him to change to Bridgestones.

But for him to change to Bridgestones five races before the end of the season? Surely Pedrosa's lot know something we don't in that Honda will be on Bridgestones next year, and with the single tyre announcement for 2009, it therefore must be Bridgestones all round for everyone. They can't have risked going to Bridgestone for just five races, then being forced to flip back to Michelin, can they?

What is odd about this whole thing is that the announcement we received from the FIM said the change was happening 'for reasons of cost and safety'. Cost and safety? Firstly, it costs the works teams nothing to have tyres anyway, with only the privateers of this world paying Michelin a fee. Bridgestone certainly don't pay the teams to run their tyres.

Secondly, the element of safety is a joke. If you want to get all high and mighty over safety, then motorcycle racing is not going to be top of the list. It is dangerous and it says so on the back of my pass, never mind all the limps and scars around the paddock.

Personally, I strongly believe single tyre rules are a shame. It makes a sport into Pop Idol or WWF Wrestling. It just for the show rather than a balance with technology and racing.

Show is A1GP or Superleague Formula. There is nothing technological about it, just show, and their kind of fans are not the people who are going to go out of their way to go to the Goodwood Revival or to read this column.

If we go single tyre, then why don't we go to a single engine and chassis as well? Where will it stop? More importantly, what happens if the chosen tyre supplier, ahem sorry, Bridgestone, decide they need to cut their worldwide budget or get told there is no further advantage to be gained by being in MotoGP leaving them to pull out? Where will the next supplier be then?

I just think it's a shame for the sport to not develop technologies, to be the top of the game and at the pinnacle of motorcycle racing. It is grand prix for goodness sake.

Maybe neither Bridgestone or Michelin will offer a tender? As of Sunday night, Michelin had not been told what the tender may hold, for how many years let alone for how many tyres. Offers have to be in by tomorrow, Friday; not much time for people to get their house in order for potentially a multi million dollar spend over the next few years.

Just as in last year's Motegi tyre mess, it got changed at the last minute and we continued with a fair competition. I hope this year holds the same and we can have a proper prototype battle to the flag again next year.

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- The Autosport.com Team

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