By Dean Adams
Reports from selected European-based media indicated Honda’s factory team was in crisis after the Sepang test last week due to supposed problems with the team’s engines.
The reports stated the power management of the new “big bang” engine configuration used in the RC213V still was difficult even though Honda has abandoned the traditional “screamer” firing order of its powerplants.
Wait: Didn’t Marc Marquez canter to his third World Championship last season for the Repsol Honda Team, clinching the title with three races remaining? Readers with good memories may have recalled similar stories and complaints about the RC213V engine last season.
Marquez ended up third quickest last week at the Sepang test, just .138 of a second behind leader Maverick Vinales’ Yamaha. Marquez busted out 39 laps in the 2:00 bracket, twice as many as the nearest competitor.
Even tell-it-like-it-is Cal Crutchlow admitted significant progress with a newer-spec engine that he tested at Sepang and indicated the factory knows it still has plenty of work to do.
So does this mean Marquez will seal the deal this year with two races to go instead of three? This is a crisis?
As Roger Daltrey sang in The Who’s 1981 hit “Another Tricky Day,” “This is no social crisis, just another tricky day for you …”
