Michael Scott | September 12, 2024
Cycle News In The Paddock
COLUMN
Honda’s Hard Times
It’s a curious state of affairs when Honda’s favorite protégé signs for Aprilia. Talk about topsy-turvy.
But that’s what’s happened to Ai Ogura, the latest Japanese bright hope and, in fact, the brightest for some time. Earmarked ever since his Asia Talent Cup days as a shoo-in for Japan’s racing giant, the rider has found better things to do.
Meanwhile, his great friend, roommate and former Moto2 Honda Team Asia teammate Somkiat Chantra has done the other thing—achieved what was once (and probably will be again) every rider’s dream: a MotoGP Honda ride, replacing Taka Nakagami in the satellite LCR team.
Is Honda’s future in MotoGP looking brighter? Photo: Gold & Goose
Everything about Honda is topsy-turvy right now. The winningest brand in racing history is presently plum last in the Constructors’ Championship, with nothing likely to change over the remainder of the season, for the third year in succession.
Just to put this in proportion, in 75 years of the Constructors’ title, for the first 17 of which, and for a subsequent 11, they didn’t compete, Honda has won 25 times. Next, MV Agusta with 16, Yamaha with 14, and Suzuki with seven.
As for race wins, Honda’s 313 to Yamaha’s 245, MV’s 139 and Suzuki’s 97. But Honda’s last victory was in 2023. At the U.S. GP with Alex Rins, it was the only one that year and followed a winless 2022.
It’s not just a fallow period or a couple of years of near misses.
It’s a juggernaut careering down the canyon, completely out of control.
It’s hard to comprehend. Yet also quite explicable. Honda has been left behind by innovative European engineers, whose creative interpretation of the rules has outflanked the Japanese.
Is this a matter of being too literal-minded? A national characteristic of obeying rules rather than trying to find a way around them?
That’s a tempting conclusion but a touch too simplistic. Too stereotypical. Yet it’s true that Honda’s initial racing success in the 1960s was very much the opposite of innovation. Soichiro Honda relied on proven engineering principles, executed better. Before you argue, adding more cylinders and extra revs isn’t exactly innovative; doing so successfully is, however, fruitful for racing success.
Modern prescriptive technical regs mean Honda can’t do that anymore. Sadly, everybody in racing feels nostalgia not just for the five-cylinder 125 and six-cylinder 250/350 of the 1960s but also for the sonorous and largely superior V5 of the first five years of MotoGP.
The innovation that has left Honda (and Yamaha) trailing is much more blue-sky. Most of it has come from Ducati’s Gigi Dall’Igna, an accomplished circumventor of restrictions and exploiter of loopholes.
Ducati pioneered wings 10 years ago and, ever since, their aerodynamics have been a step ahead of their imitators, with the now-and-then exception of Aprilia. While the rest copied the fairing-nose wings, Ducati switched to fairing-flank adornment. Ducati then pioneered the so-called “spoon” scoop on the swingarm, which they successfully argued, against protests led by Aprilia, was a device to cool the rear tire rather than an aerodynamic aid. The extra downforce it provided was just an ancillary, a bonus.
Then followed stegosaurus spines on the seat, as well as winglets on fork sliders and swingarms, all evading new rules that shortsightedly applied only to existing fairing wings.
Honda was slow to copy and is still struggling to catch up.
The same applies to the genuflecting ride-height devices, another Ducati trick. This neatly outflanked long-standing rules banning active suspension. And when the rivals copied the front-suspension adjustments, Ducati led the way with squatting at the rear as well.
Criticized for being too stubborn and too rigid for this season and the future, HRC has reportedly radically restructured its approach. An urgent attempt to be less linear. Rumors of a new technical base in Milan, following Yamaha’s long-ago move to Italy, suggest something more than the current logistical base in Spain. It means opening up to European influences.
Hiring Aleix Espargaro to join Stefan Bradl in the Europe-based test team is to be backed by current rider Nakagami’s new test-rider role back in Japan. Christian Pupulin, ex-Ducati and ex-KTM, joins Honda next year, a very experienced track engineer.
As important, 2027’s MotoGP restructure: ride-height devices banned, aerodynamics cut right back. This should also play to Honda’s strengths: building motorcycles rather than clever-clogs two-wheel aerodynes.
The time frame is also promising for racing’s classic senior factory: the pace of improvement this year has been very slow.
Chantra’s move to Honda, could prove inspired—the bike returning to full strength just as he gains enough experience. Likewise, things could come good for current Repsol incumbents Joan Mir and Luca Marini.
And Ogura? As he said to the press at the confirmation of his switch to Aprilia: “I’ve grown up with Honda. Maybe I can finish my career with them. Let’s see.” CN
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