Which story snowcone? I just get the home page.
Sorry, stupid computers
The link will work from othet site, but not when I post it here so I will try and cut and paste the interview with Mr Honda Nakamoto
Shuei Nakamoto, executive vice president of HRC, came over from Formula 1 and is the man who turned Honda's fortunes around in MotoGP. It's no coincidence that his arrival accompanied a return to victory.
With the end of the Spanish influence within the team connected to Repsol, Nakamoto not only provided the proper technical direction for the team, but also took on a crucial political role with the Japanese manufacturer.
The hiring of Livio Suppo, some engineers from rival manufacturers and Casey Stoner, were all part of his winning strategy.
In this exclusive interview, Nakamoto-san speaks openly about Stoner, Lorenzo, Rossi, and the arm wrestling matching currently going on between HRC and Dorna. Honda has made some dramatic decisions in the past, and the time might be right for another one.
On Stoner
Q: Did Casey Stoner tell you or ask your permission before his retirement announcement in Le Mans?
N: Since the end of last year, he had been saying he wants to retire at the end of this season but we tried to convince him to stay showing him various conditions but unfortunately we failed.
Q: What do you think is the main reason for his retirement?
N: I think it is kind of burn out syndrome. He has been racing here in Europe since he was fourteen years old. He came up from lower category to the top with the support of his family. I am sure there has been a lot of pressure on him for a long time.
Q: Also he is not happy with the way Dorna organize MotoGP.
N: Casey is fast rider but not so diplomatic! Dorna, together with MSMA, is trying its best to allow MotoGP to go ahead in such a difficult economical situation. I can understand this is difficult to accept for a rider, but unfortunately the situation is as it is and we must find some solutions.
Q: But why announce it now and not after the summer break.
N: He told me if he waits till for instance after summer break, the championship fight will become more severe and clear and if he says he will quit, people may think he say so because he is either loosing or is leading easily. It is a kind of aesthetics for him to announce it now and try his best for the rest of the season.
Q: What is your opinion of Casey as a racing rider.
N: He is totally genius. I have never seen a rider like him before. I have always told our engineers to work harder and meet the standard what Casey’ is showing.
Q: Casey doesn’t like electronics aids so much. How much does he help in terms of machine development.
N: A lot. Casey doesn’t like electronics aids and at first, our engineers and other staff were worried if we let Casey does what he likes, tire may not last. But in the end, Casey controls tyre slip by himself. The most efficient acceleration can be obtained when the rear tyre slip ratio is around 10%, that is when you get best grip. In order to obtain 10% slip ratio, you have to fix the traction control to this level and so on. In case of Casey, we fix the slip ratio to 20% and he controls the bike without using traction control. Still his acceleration line in a diagram shows ideal line. In other word, he does what computer aid does only with his body
Last year we had three riders, Casey, Dani and Dovizioso. Dovi was using traction control at maximum level. Dani uses it as an aid to his riding skill. Casey uses as least.
We have added Casey’s requests to our traction control system and now it is almost completed. We have gained a lot of technological information from him. He contributed to us not only in racing results but in terms of development as well.
On Lorenzo
Q: Now you have a task to find his replacement.
N: Yes, I have already spoken to Jorge’s manager here in Barcelona as he wanted to see me. Not a negotiation but just introducing ourselves. That is quite normal to see someone, when he asks to see you. Valentino hasn’t called so I have not seen him. Of course I will speak with Dani soon.
Q: Is there any possibility for Valentino to come back to Honda?
N: Not to the factory team, but he can ask satellite Honda teams if he wants. I think he can bring a big sponsorship and that will be welcomed by many teams.
Q: There is an article about Honda dream team in Spanish press. Jorge and Marquez.
N: Ha, ha, ha. That’s not a dream team. Dani, Jorge, Valentino and Marquez, that can be a dream team! (laugh).
Q: What do you think of Jorge as a rider?
N: Dani is fast rider and Jorge is strong rider. They are both very good.
On Marquez
Q: Have you asked Dorna to cancel Rookie Rule to let Marc Marquez join Repsol Honda?
N: No, that is not so important. What is important is to let Marquez move up to MotoGP. We will be happy if we can have him in the factory team, though. Last year we had three factory riders but we had to reduce the number to two because this is the first year with 1000cc and we needed a lot of money for the development of RC213V. But for next year may be we can have three factory supported riders. Why not?
At this moment, everything is still up in the air, so I cannot answer anymore about riders’ market.
Q: What did you think of the penalty forced on Marquez’s move and also about the cancellation?
N: I can understand if they had put penalty on Marquez in Qatar but not in Catalunya. May be they have restudied video in depth in order to cancel the penalty.
Honda's Threat to Walk Away
Q: What will happen to the regulations from 2013.
N: It is almost fixed and will be announced shortly.
Q: We don’t have much time before 2013. Was it same in Formula One? Was the lead time so short?
N: No, it was longer in Formula One. But we are talking about non-technical rules now so it doesn’t affect any technical change.
Q: What about the rules from 2014/2015? They say it will be enforced from 2014 instead of 2015.
N: No way to accept the change from 2014. If so, we will not support the Championship Also we don’t want a big change. If they say we must move to all-CRT, we will quit. We have made that clear to Dorna.
Anyway I think true performance of CRT is higher than what we see now. We would like to prove that.
Q: What do you mean by prove it?
N: To see a fast rider riding a proper develop CRT bike In some tracks, top Moto2 riders are faster than slower CRT riders. This cannot be accepted. If Honda makes a CRT bike, it will surely be one second faster than a Moto2 (if he two riders are at the same level of course!). At the moment technical regulation for full proto and CRT is balanced, what we miss is more good CRT and good riders on it! Already this season we can see that a good rider like De Puniet on a good bike like the ART can be as fast as full proto.
Q: What do you think of Suzuki new MotoGP machine? Is it something in middle of CRT and prototype?
N:?It is genuine prototype. It looks like GSXR so that it would promote the sales of production bike, but it is genuine prototype MotoGP bike.
Q: What do you think of prohibiting carbon disc brake?
N: That is nonsense. We cannot sacrifice safety. We should think how to reduce the cost if this technology, not to change it!
Q: Dani had a big wheelie during the race in Catalunya. Didn’t wheelie control system automatically?
N: Wheelie control system usually works automatically, but in the case of Dani in Catalunya, a slip or something had happened so the wheelie control didn’t work.
Q: Casey had a problem with tire in Catalunya race.
N: Because of the rain in the morning, track temperature was down and was almost same as in FP1 and we used soft tire during FP1, so we should have chosen soft tire instead of hard tire. His lap time was as slow as ‘44s during the race. That was not the way Casey was performing on Friday/Saturday.
Q: Now Jorge is leading Casey by 20 points.
N: We have only done five races so far and have thirteen more to come. It is a long way to go and it is too early to worry about that.
Q: About the post-race test in Catalunya, how did your riders like the new specification front tire?
N: Both of them complained chattering problems. We don’t like the way they force the new construction tire from the middle of the season, but as it is decided, we have to cope with it.