Is Hayden's bike the same spec as Rossi's ?
Nope, Rossi, Gibernau and Biaggi are riding latest spec machines ( Max finally got Ukawa's bike this weekend ) Hayden, Ukawa, Kiyonari and Tamada are 1 or two steps behind, but I don't think the difference is very big.
That's Rossi, Hayden, Gibernau & Ukawa on first tier HRC equipment right? Based on how the season started and Gibernau being promoted after Kato's death I'm pretty sure.
At the start of the season it was, but last weekend, Hayden and Ukawa's bikes were definitely at least one step behind Rossi, Gibernau and Biaggi's ( these three were the only ones with the new exhaust ) Grtz, Phil.
just a Honda play, they are making a "what can you do?" game with the riders, past saturday, it was Tamada´s turn, next race, it can be Hayden or Okada´s turn. Honda is looking for Rossi replacement, everything is on factory engineers laptop computers. For sure, in Portugal GP, Gressini team (Sete's team) were crazy looking for more speed in their bikes and, lets say, "not close to happyness" with Honda factory engineers and their "help". Just a fact, Sete´s RCV in Portugal was slower than factoy Kawas, why??? How can Honda HRC sell a ultra millionary sponsorship contract to Repsol if another Honda ride beats Rossi???? hehehe.....hard question, isn´t it?
So you've finally succumbed to the fact that sponsors do influence what goes around hey? seriously though... corser's '96 bike was a full Ducati works bike. Mike Hale's bike was a customer bike though. That year, I think Ducati ran 4 factory bikes. 2 for the main team, one for Corser and the other for Chilli (thought they will deny this even when it's quite clear that Chilli's bike was the fatest out of the lot. especially in Italy). Honda can play the politic games, but unlike the Italians, they'ld tell you up front about it rather than leaving you with uncertainty (Corser and Fogarty complained about the speed of Chilli's bike at one stage).
At least in WSB there's another factor here. The only people running (top spec) Michelins were the factory Ducati and Honda teams. At almost all circuits over the last few years Dunlop have been 5-10 race secs slower even when their qualifiers were just as good as Michelins. You can of course argue that Hodgeson was not riding as fast in the races as Edwards/Bayliss, and that the GSE 998F01 wasn't as fast as Bayliss' 998F02. And that the Corse team were better at their job than GSE. As for this year's 999s. Ducati are doing the same thing they've done every year for the last 10. This year's privateer bike is last year's factory bike. Which is as it should be. And then, no matter how good the series is, not everyone on the grid can win and not everyone can be in a full factory team. There has to be another 10-20 bikes ridden by people hoping to prove they deserve a factory ride and hoping to upset the factory riders. And their teams hope that they get enough coverage while doing it to attract enough sponsorship to be able to get to the next race and do it all again. In WSB and BSB, a private Ducati has been a pretty good option for these people. I can imagine it will be the same in MotoGP. In fact let's play what if. Let's say that Hodgeson+Xaus go to D'Antin in MotoGP on customer Ducatis and on Michelins. If Bayliss gets occasional front row starts and finishes 1-5 (which is where I'd see him next year), where do you think Hodgeson-Xaus would finish? My guess is 3-10. I think both of them would get on the podium at least once but most races they'd be in the lower half of the top 10.
