Britain’s Cal Crutchlow is riding right on the limit of the current Michelin MotoGP front tyres as he tries to make up for tenths lost in acceleration on the Honda RC213V, says crew chief Christophe Bourguignon, and this is why he is having a tendancy to crash in 2016.
The LCR Honda man is having not only having to contend with a bike that is outgunned by everything under acceleration as engineers struggle to make the electronics work, the contact patch of the Michelins is smaller than the previous Bridgestones which is giving less grip at crucial times.
“In Austin he lost the front and that seems to be what we are facing. If he can ride on his own he’s able to do a good lap time and have a decent pace. He can do a good race but starting the race with a big group of riders we have a lack of acceleration at the moment. Then he’s a racer and he wants to stay with those people,” Bourguignon told bikesportnews.com at Mugello.
“Automatically you brake late, you have the slipstream of the guy in front of you, you don’t have the wind to stop you, you apply more brake pressure to stop and stress the front tyre.
“With our Honda and the way we are set up at the minute we seem to be at the limit of our front tyre. You are not allowed to make a mistake. If you do you lose the front and that’s what happened in Austin and in Le Mans. It’s something we need to work on, to make the bubble where the front tyre works a little wider and to allow the rider to brake late and make a small mistake.
“He cannot be like a machine. It’s really unfortunate what’s happened at the moment. But it’s a good package, a good rider. For me, when Cal has the bike and we can give him a good basic setting he’s up there.”
