With Loris Capirossi’s stunning victory at Catalunya yesterday, Honda’s strangle-hold on the top step of the podium this year in MotoGP was broken. With the Ducati MotoGP machine still so early in its development, Honda must be concerned.
Honda has not forgotten that Ducati dominated their four-stroke rivalry in World Superbike championship racing for many years. Do not expect Honda to sit back and watch Ducati take the technological upper hand, and the horsepower crown in MotoGP. There are some reports that the Ducati raced by Capirossi to victory was purposely de-tuned to prolong tire life, yet it still managed the highest top speed down the long Catalunya front straight. Amazing.
Although Honda still has the deck quite heavily stacked when it comes to riders (Ducati has only two riders on the track this year — Capirossi and Troy Bayliss), Honda must be concerned that Bayliss will be a threat at some of the remaining circuits as well as Capirossi. Although Bayliss has largely been racing on unfamiliar circuits thus far, some of his favorite tracks remain on the 2003 schedule.
If, as some have speculated, Honda has been waiting for a serious challenge before introducing a new, and better, MotoGP machine, that time has come.
