MMMMM Melandri

[maxu05]

Being starved of Motogp action after the Jerez testing, I have been checking out the latest news in motogp.com, motolive.com and crash.net for the last week. Three times I have read a different article concerning Melandri's complaints of lack of engine power. He talks about Dani and Nicky getting the power up parts and says that he is still waiting to recieve the same parts. Is this the start of him falling out with Honda ? Will he repeat Biaggi's mistakes and bad mouth the the big red wing ? Reading the reports, he is clearly having a go at Honda, though he is doing it with diplomacy. I hope he can dodge the secret cameras and microphones that Biaggi ran into. Time will tell.
What do you think ?

[fatman]

This is the exact reason why Stoner decided to go to Ducati. Its no fun being down in the pecking order when it comes to getting factory parts.

[The Phantom]

I think ALL Honda riders should have thought long and hard about where their signature would go for 2007, after the Estoril debacle caused by HRC's failure to implement a reasonable team strategy.

Stoner made a good call.

[maxu05]

It seems as though most agree that Stoner made the right call. I think Honda are too "flavour of the month" IMO

[tha_jackal]

Checa has been just as vocal as Melandri about the sattelite honda's lack of power.. It can't be good for Honda having constant rider negativity directed towards them from several avenues..

[maxu05]

It would be good to see a satelite Kawasaki team. I'm sure Kawasaki would give em the power up parts, they are always chasing more power, and this year I think they have it.

[leopard]

That's the rule, satelite team usually has powerless engine that the main team, Tech3 never have competitive bike, but for the three years backward i think Honda supplied the same power machine to all Honda powered team.

This maybe the right time to apply the rule again, considering Hayden the word champ and Pedrosa is better than all through their looking glass deserve for their best bike

[harsha]

well,isn't that always the case,honda cannot supply all the upgrades to the satelite team...marco should have known this was gonna happen instead of bitching about it now...,imo,he should have gone to yamaha if he had teh chance

[Mach24]

MM will do just fine where he is. Should one of the factory boys find themselves in trouble early (Hayden) he will get the go fast bits he requires provided he has a consistent start.

Marco is hoping to get Honda to provide him with kit sooner rather than later by going public.

One does need to be in a factory team or be supplied factory kit immediately to be a chance.

I think Honda are still the best manufacturer, perhaps the best rider is at Yamaha.

[harsha]

honda is the best manufacturer,no doubt but it would have been better for a rider like melandri to have shifted loyalties like what stoner did

[NinjaMaster]

Didn't Marco turn down Ducati to stay with Honda on the proviso that he also got a factory bike? Stoner was going to be 5th in line so it was the best sense for him but 3rd in line at Honda is still usually very fast.

[Mach24]

honda is the best manufacturer,no doubt but it would have been better for a rider like melandri to have shifted loyalties like what stoner did

To have gone to Ducati smart! Yamaha (with Rossi) dumb! IMHO.

[maxu05]

If Marco was offered Ducati, I think he should have taken it, though, perhaps he thought it was too big a change for him and feels more comfortable on a Honda. I think Mark is right, a move to Yamaha would have meant Tech3, a step backwards for sure.

[mx311]

First thing to remember when you're talking about the Honda MotoGP program is that they supply six motorcycles, more than any other manufacturer. Of course it will take time for HRC parts to filter down that line. The 'customer' bikes must wait for the parts because the Repsol team is of course the official HRC team. Their riders should have the best parts HRC make. The non-HRC riders will always complain that they aren't getting the parts fast enough, but as one current Honda MotoGP rider told me, it's still better to wait in line at HRC than to ride pretty much any other bike in the field. Yamaha and Ducati are worse at filtering parts down to their satellite teams.

Back to Marco, he is complaining because he's the third HRC rider (the guy Sete used to be). He should have pretty much the same bike as the Repsol guys but because these are completely new bikes they are in a state of constant development. Marco (and the Gresini team) just have to be more patient while the Repsol guys work the bugs out. Remember that Marco raced at Jerez last year with a full 2005 spec RCV before getting his hands on the new bike and he still did just fine.

Come Qatar, Marco will have the good bits (if he wants to use them), he just needs to be a little patient because complaining only puts HRC offside and Marco doesn't want that.

[maxu05]

Fair call, just don't want to see him fall out with the manufacturers as Biaggi did.

[Lanky_Wes]

Didn't Marco turn down Ducati to stay with Honda on the proviso that he also got a factory bike? Stoner was going to be 5th in line so it was the best sense for him but 3rd in line at Honda is still usually very fast.

im pretty sure you are right. marco was going to go to ducati but honda said they would basically give him a factory bike. i can understand if he is unhappy that he is not getting what he was promised. hopefully come race time all is sorted out and his bike is just as good as the two repsol hondas.

[ChrisS]

Yamaha and Ducati are worse at filtering parts down to their satellite teams.

Yamaha basically has Rossi and everyone else. At some point last year, Colin's factory Yamaha had more things in common with the tech3 bikes than with Vale's bike

[jidoka]

Yamaha basically has Rossi and everyone else. At some point last year, Colin's factory Yamaha had more things in common with the tech3 bikes than with Vale's bike

"At some point" try and and be a bit more specific when your trying to run down Rossi.

[ChrisS]

"At some point" try and and be a bit more specific when your trying to run down Rossi.

If you are saying I'm making things up to put down Rossi then I'm not even going to bother replying to that.

If you took a minute to check you would find out I'm a Rossi supporter

[harsha]

agree,if you had compared the times set by Edwards and the Tech 3 bike,they were pretty close,Yamaha were more concentrated on getting the best out of the one rider policy....possibly cause Edwards wasn't good enough

[The Phantom]

My understanding was that CE was doing a lot of testing for Rossi, meaning his bike was quite different from both Rossi's and the Tech3 bikes. Whatever worked, went on Rossi's bike for further evaluation. Not sure how the filter-down for Tech3 worked but I doubt whether they got much useful stuff out of the CE/Rossi science.

[fatman]

Looks like Marco is being very vocal about what he had been promised by HRC and what he's actually getting. His claims (according to crash.net and a few other news sites) is that he was promised he would be on the same priority level as Hayden and Pedrosa.

His comments/complaints were all made after the Jerez race but before he was topping the time sheets during post race testing. Not sure if that makes a difference or not.

So is Marco just blowing smoke or do you think he actually believed he was going to get the same priority?

[leopard]

Good result for the duo Gressini have scored the fastest of post race testing at Jerez although I think very often about the mean of post race testing more as dally and dally over than collecting the right data of the result.

I am not sure about getting the second part from Honda despite being rider for a satellite team, I don’t think he is in the right capacity about the first part from manufacturer.

Melandri’s problem is consistency,
Considering Elias performance at Jerez and provided the post race testing is reliable, I am afraid of him about blowing smoke. :s mokin: :)

[harsha]

Melandri wont be treated on par with the factory honda drivers which is a pity but he'll be the first guy after them to get the new parts

[jonny hurlock]

İ would not be shock to see Melandri off to Suzuki or even Ducati for next season

or maybe to world sbk?

[Corny]

I hope no WSBK, I think he still belongs to the best riders in the world.. But maybe Suzuki, Ducati or even Yamaha (which will probably not happen as long as Rossi's there) will do him better than where he is now

[NinjaMaster]

No chance of WSB but I could see him replacing Capirex at seasons end at Ducati. I believe that he was offered a factory bike by Honda in a bid to keep hold of him from defecting to Ducati. How quickly he gets those new parts I don't know but he was always unlikely to get equal treatment with the Repsol boys.

[maxu05]

Perhaps Melandri shouldn't have taken the red pill that Max gave him :laugh:

[jonny hurlock]

No chance of WSB but I could see him replacing Capirex at seasons end at Ducati. I believe that he was offered a factory bike by Honda in a bid to keep hold of him from defecting to Ducati. How quickly he gets those new parts I don't know but he was always unlikely to get equal treatment with the Repsol boys.


I hope no WSBK, I think he still belongs to the best riders in the world.. But maybe Suzuki, Ducati or even Yamaha (which will probably not happen as long as Rossi's there) will do him better than where he is now

sayıng that he could go to Ducati, Suzukı or even Kawasaki, but also sayıng that ıf he did a max biaggi a few years ago and nobody doesn't want hım he could go to wsbk

[harsha]

Perhaps Melandri shouldn't have taken the red pill that Max gave him :laugh:

i bet he thought the green pill was the bad one ;)

[tha_jackal]

Quite humourous as ususal from motogpnews.com .. But does it hold some truth? I think so, surely Melandri isnt in a position to be complaining in such a way? Any rider would KILL to have the ride he has (bar Hayden and Pedrosa) I think he should just keep it quiet, or we will see him get the sack at the end of the year, if not before..


"Beefing horse-face Marco Melandri has turned back the clocks to 2005 and given us all a classic Max Biaggi style whine regarding a lack of equality at HRC.

Where's the beef? Marco whining looks set to see him sacked

Back in 2005 things were very different. Edwards still hadn't won a race, Pedrosa was only knee-high to a grasshopper and a certain Roman Empress was about to embark on a season of purest whinge against Honda and the lack of equality he claimed to be receiving. Biaggi's beefing upset the top-noodles at HRC so much that they banned him from ever riding a Honda motorcycle again as well as vetoing his proposed purchase of 1998 bottle green Honda Civic that had caught his eye in the classified section of the Rome Times.

We all missed Max in 2006 but, just like his hair, it seems though a new fake version is returning to amuse us all. Step forward Marco Melandri.

Although Melandri has yet to grow an annoying beard or get beaten up by a wasp the young Italian is keen on emulating Biaggi by slagging off Honda. Marco's biggest beef is that HRC promised him a full factory bike for 2007 to convince him not to join Ducati. Unfortunately the small print of his contract was not read as it unclearly stated 'you're an idiot if you believe anything we say'.
To make Melandri's moaning bitterer than a Gibernau frown the Italian was comprehensively outpaced in Jerez by his average team-mate Fat Toni Elias.

"Equal bikes" echoed the beefing horse "that's what I was promised - the same bike as Pedrosa and that farmer. But my bike is not equal. It's a nail. I've asked many times for it not to be a nail but Honda just ignore me or mutter 'sucker' under their breath. My tyres are rubbish too. Equal tyres that's all I asked for…actually I didn't. But I didn't sign up to ride on Bridgestone's to then find I didn't have an unfair advantage. It's not fair."

Immediately after the Jerez race Melandri swore at his pit crew then stormed out of his pitbox knocking over an elderly lady with a bad hip which caused her to fall into a mincing machine*.
All we can do now is sit back and enjoy Marco getting sacked.

* Fact to be confirmed"

:D

[maxu05]

Poor old Marco Biaggi. Max Melandri seems to be doing OK though :laugh:

[ChrisS]

IIRC the same problem with full factory spec bikes for Gresini was an issue either in 2003 with kato or 2004 with Sete

Repsol objected to giving full factory spec bikes to Gresini because they were sponored by rivals Castrol so HRC gave gresini an 'almost' factory spec bike

[leopard]

Melandri isn't alone, there are many subtances out-there being treated isn't fair and square. I'm with my great empathy towards such case as Melandri and Biaggi eventhough their problems are different.

I think Melandri watchs something trough someone else's looking glass, in this case are Nicky and Dani that lead him to think about 'what ifs', What if he was Nicky what if he was Dani, HRC will support him fully. I'am not sure about Nicky, in this two races he wasn't even marked difference better than Melandri. As for Pedrosa i believe his ability deserves to get everything better from Honda.

Melandri please keep in mind that everyone bear their own fate since he was born, however my understanding is with such great empathy for those have such feeling inequitably treated. :)