Them's Fightin' Words

A lot has been written over the last two weeks about the shunt between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton at Spa.  In that time I’ve felt that the English press has been more biased towards Hamilton than usual, so I thought I’d put a few thoughts out into the ether.  Why do I feel my opinion matters?  Because I have a keyboard and an internet connection, natch.

Let me start by saying that the German press has largely considered it a racing incident, and from what I could see I agree.  It goes without saying that Nico was the instigator, and in doing so he broke the cardinal rule of motor racing: don’t take out your teammate.  It was Hamilton’s corner and Rosberg should have braked or deviated off track, so no argument from me there.

But let’s for a moment forget that they’re teammates.  For arguments sake, let’s put Fernando Alonso in Rosberg’s place.  Would Alonso be at fault?  Sure.  Should the FIA investigate further, or should Alonso be forced to publicly apologize, only to continue to be chastised ad nauseam in the press?  I don’t think so.

The simple fact is that both drivers have been misbehaving all year, so neither should be expecting any favours from the other.  This is the fault of weak management from the Mercedes brass, and should have been nipped in the bud at Bahrain.  But it wasn’t, and it continued, and now here we are.  We should all assume from here on in that once the lights go out, they see each other as legitimate combatants.

What I found irritating above all else was the eagerness with which Hamilton told the world, via traditional and social media, that ‘(Rosberg) said he hit me on purpose.’  Obviously I was not in that pressure-cooker of a post-race meeting, however as someone who spends a lot of their work day muddling through in a second language (incidentally, German), I can tell you that it doesn’t take much for a native speaker to take what you’ve said and twist it to suit their agenda.  On more than one occasion I’ve had an ill worded sentence turned back on me during a contentious meeting, and it’s a shitty way to take a cheap shot at one’s opponent.

So while I’d suggest that Rosberg’s English is far better than my German, and I’ll admit that it’s a stretch, I believe what Rosberg meant to say was that he was putting pressure on Lewis and in turn didn’t relent to prove a point.  So yes, he was at fault, and yes, he would do it again – but given that Hamilton himself hasn’t been exactly squeaky clean this year he shouldn’t expect Rosberg to back off purely by virtue of their matching liveries.

As far as I’m concerned, Lewis is a big crybaby and Nico is being the bigger man.

Now the question turns to how to deal with it from Monza until Abu Dhabi.  The problem is that there aren’t too many ways they can reprimand drivers without harming the team as a whole.  Suspend a driver?  His replacement probably wouldn’t be able to match his results, thereby hurting the team’s chances in the manufacturer’s championship.  Nominate a No. 1 driver?  Mercedes would be accused of manipulating the driver’s championship, and presumably open themselves up to litigation from the now No. 2 driver’s personal sponsors.  And even then, which? 

I do have one idea, but it’s not pleasant: collective punishment.  It’s harsh, and in theatres of war abhorrent, but I can tell you from my time at boarding school it can be extremely effective.  I was in a dorm of 16 boys when one of us was caught smoking for the umpteenth time.  As punishment, every morning for a week the other 15 of us had to get up at 5 am and run 7 kilometers before breakfast.  He didn’t get caught smoking again.

So here’s my proposal, as unfortunate as it may be: if Rosberg or Hamilton tangle with each other or ignore instructions from the pit garage from now until the end of the season, no one back at Mercedes’ Brackley HQ gets their race bonus.  Nico and Lewis get theirs, but no one else.  While I’m sure they’re appropriately remunerated, those employed in the engineering, accounting, marketing departments and so on are not people earning tens of millions of Euros a year, posting selfies of themselves in Moncao with their Paganis during their free time.  So the next time Lewis or Nico ignore team orders or take each other out, make them walk through the complex, look every employee in the eye and apologize for personally costing them £150.  Maybe then they might recognize just how many people’s hard work goes into putting them on the top step every other Sunday, and start treating all of their teammates like teammates.

Goon Hoon

OK, so I was wrong.  Several months ago I suggested that 2014 would be Dani Pedrosa’s last season with Honda Racing Corporation’s factory MotoGP squad.  However recently it was announced that he, like teammate and compatriot Marc Marquez, had signed a two year contract with HRC.

Just in case you'd forgotten what Marc Marquez looks like leading the pack, here he is on the way to winning his 10th straight race at the Sachsenring in Germany.

Over at Yamaha, we’ve also got two more years of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.  Surprisingly, Shuhei Nakamoto, the most visible of the high-ranking HRC management, when asked stated that HRC didn’t ever engage in talks with Lorenzo as many had assumed, something which Lorenzo himself confirmed.  Nakamoto san’s reasoning?  ‘We wanted fast riders.’  Ouch.

To be fair, at 36 years old Valentino doesn't look very slow...

Elsewhere in the paddock, Cal Crutchlow has managed to wriggle himself out of a second year on the career-killing Ducati Desmosedici.  Interestingly, it suits pretty much everyone: all the available telemetry was unable to explain why Crutchlow couldn’t keep up with teammate Andrea Dovisioso and hence no remedy appeared on the horizon, while satellite Ducati rider Andrea Iannone publicly questioned the Bologna factory as to what he needed to do for a factory ride, given that week-in week-out he was breathing down Dovi’s neck.  So as of 2015 Iannone will be a factory rider, and everyone’s happy.

Cal is now on his way to LCR Honda where a factory prepped RC213V awaits, bumping Stefan Bradl down into the Open class with NGM Forward Racing where he’ll take the place of retiring crowd favourite Colin Edwards.  There’s one more RC213V available for 2015, with three teams vying for both it and Scott Redding’s signature – however they don’t necessarily come together.  Scott has certainly done enough in his rookie year to stake a claim to the bike, but the question is money, who has it, who can get it, and who wants to pay what for Redding.  With Suzuki and Aprilia’s return to top tier motorcycle racing next year thrown into the mix, there isn’t a lot of anything to go ‘round.

Old foes battle again: Redding tagging Marc Marquez despite far inferior machinery.

 All of this is a roundabout way of getting to who I really wanted to talk about: Jack Miller.  I make no apologies for blindly supporting those that have a kangaroo and emu on their passports (like me) and Jack is no different.

Miller (8) leads Matteo Ferrari (3) and main championship rival Alex Marquez (12).

I’ve been following Miller’s career since he first came to Europe and struck up a confederacy with Damian Cudlin.  I’ve been a big fan of ‘Damo’s’ for a long time.  He’s been racing in Europe for the better part of a decade now, and things haven’t always gone his way – racers with more money taking his ride at the last minute, teams literally disbanding a month before the start of the season – but he’s always had the gumption to keep at it, and in the process has won a couple of championships along the way.  After it looked like it was all over at the beginning of this year when PBM Aprilia gave his ride to someone else, he’s been called into duty mid-season in the motorcycle world endurance championship.

So I watched Miller’s first two full seasons in Moto3 intently, where he rode Racing Team Germany’s Honda into positions usually reserved for factory riders.  Aki Ajo, owner of Red Bull KTM Ajo which runs KTM’s Moto3 factory racing program took notice, signing Miller for their 2014 campaign, a gamble which has been rewarded with Miller leading the championship after 11 rounds.

Miller’s 2015 hasn’t yet been announced, however after a contractual spat with Marc VDS’s Moto2 program (they maintain they had an agreement with Miller for 2015/16 in place, Miller and Ajo disagree; the matter is now with lawyers), speculation has it that Miller will make the rare jump directly from Moto3 to MotoGP with Honda.

The last person to make such a jump was another Aussie, Gary McCoy back in 1998 who went on to win 3 races in his first full season in 2000.

Most riders in the MotoGP paddock think Miller should hold off and spend two years in Moto2 getting used to a heavier bike first.  I’ll never ride a GP bike and get paid for it so perhaps my views are ill-informed (actually I’m pretty sure they are), but I think he should roll the dice and go for it.  Moto2 is an incredibly competitive class, and it’s not uncommon for riders who excelled in Moto3 to get caught up in Moto2 and lost in the mix.  Last year’s Moto3 world champion Maverick Viñales is a rare exception, standing on the podium 5 times thus far in his first year in Moto2, including a win.  Apart from Viñales, there are 6 other 125cc/Moto3 world champions in Moto2 this year, none of whom are close to championship leader Tito Rabat.  So if you’re given the opportunity to bypass all of that traffic, why not?

There’s no question that jumping from a 50 bhp 250cc single to a 230 bhp 1000 cc four is a huge adjustment physically.  So for the deal to be as reasonable for Miller as possible (as if giving a 19 year old a GP bike and saying ‘have at it’ were unreasonable), it needs to allow for at least one year so he can adjust physically.

With all that said, I come back to Scott Redding.  As I write this, the teams involved have about 1 more week to raise the necessary funds to bid for the last factory Honda.  Given his performances this year, Honda (and everyone else) believe Redding deserves a factory bike but the problem is finding said cash.  So my suspicion is that the Honda/Miller deal is already done, but they’re just waiting to see if someone can stump for the factory bike for Redding first.  Why else would Miller tweet this out of the blue?