On Track Off Road No.183

Feature
effectively sharing top billing
since 2013. As ever, he knew
the right words and genuinely
seemed to appreciate his role
in the 25 year story of the two
powerhouse companies surrounding
him.
“It’s a privilege to be part of
this family; to have seen those
colours as a kid from the sofa.
25 years go I was a baby and
only just born!” he said. “I’m
proud to be part of this story
and next to these champions
and add a few titles.”
“I had an offer to be in MotoGP
for 2012 but wanted
to wait for Repsol Honda,”
he then revealed of his 2013
move and the start of an
almost unbeatable union.
“People ask me if I’ll leave and
I say ‘why? I’m with the best
team’.”
Doohan claimed one of the
key ingredients in HRC’s prowess
was the synergy between
the chess-piece movers. “The
partnership between the two
[Repsol & Honda] has been
better than anyone else and
that’s because they let everyone
get on with what they
need to do,” he explained.
“They let the riders be the riders.
I think the momentum is
building.”
It was exciting to see Lorenzo
perched in his Honda Alpinestars
leathers.
There is something more edgy
and potent about his inclusion
in the team compared to
the endless presence of Dani
Pedrosa since 2006. Speaking
briefly of his compatriot,
Lorenzo said it felt “strange”
to be taking Pedrosa’s place
but “I think we understand his
situation after years of sacrifice”.
The Honda-Lorenzo
combination could meander
into the underwhelming stint
that the rider’s hero – Max
Biaggi – weathered for a single
year in 2005...but it really
doesn’t feel like that will happen.
#99 could really give the
squad and the championship
a hard and fantastically unpredictable
shake-up.
2) (not) Just a
flesh wound
Lorenzo sported a sizeable
cast less than twenty-four
hours after scaphoid surgery,
Marquez looked fit but stiff
and even Doohan joked that
he was struggling to breathe
in his old race suit. “It’s not
the best situation,” Team Manager
Alberto Puig reflected on
the general lack of bike fitness
of his riders “but it’s much
better if it happens now than
in the middle of the season.
We will take it as it is, and
our priority is that the riders
are fit on March 10 when the
championship begins.”
Puig confirmed that German
Stefan Bradl will take on HRC
testing orders (and no doubt
waiting around for the Sepang
showers to clear) in Lorenzo’s
absence for the outing in
Malaysia next week. “We will
follow the body and the riders’
condition,” Puig said. “[For]
the bike, of course we have
a process and it’s being developed.
We will keep trying
and Honda will keep doing the
things they know they have to
do.”
Lorenzo talked of making
the second test in Losail and
being “90-95% at the Qatar
race”. He also commented
that the dirt track spill (“a very
stupid crash”) was also partly
caused by his weakened left
wrist as a consequence of the
injury from the massive ‘off’
in Thailand last October. “You
find situations that you cannot
change,” he lamented of the
damage to the scaphoid. “It’s
a complicated bone and one
of the worst you can break.
Luckily in 2019 there are advanced
procedures.” Exactly
how much strength and feeling
the Majorcan will recover
will only be known once he’s
back on the RCV. Doohan was
keeping optimistic: “depending
on how his wrist heals I
imagine he should be challenging
pretty much straight
away for a podium, I should
think…”