Cal Crutchlow maintains his patchy 2019 MotoGP form is down to a Honda RC213V that he is still struggling to make consistently competitive, adding that Marc Marquez is performing ‘a miracle’ in the way he is dominating the championship.
Ahead of this weekend’s Aragon MotoGP event, the Briton is eager to bounce back from a terrible weekend in Misano where he was off the pace, out-performed by LCR team-mate Takaaki Nakagami and crashed in the race whilst running outside the top ten.
With Marquez going on to win that race following a titanic race-long tussle with Fabio Quartararo, Crutchlow goes as far as saying the Spaniard performed a ‘miracle’ to go so fast on a bike he suggests has fundamental handling issues around certain circuits.
"You can't do that [at Misano]. It's not that kind of circuit," he told reports, including our sister publication Crash.net. "Where I'm struggling is in the fast corners on deceleration and you can't open the throttle and turn when you are still decelerating with the brake on.
"So, I struggled in every corner. This is the situation. I don’t feel good with the bike, I didn’t feel good in the test and I didn’t feel good in the race’
"Marc made a miracle. Simple as that."
"Physically [the bike is] not good at the moment and I believe, yes, Marc's requests are probably similar to ours. But I also don’t think that he cares so much as the other riders would have to care, because he's still able to finish on the podium every week and win the race today.
"I've made podiums with [the bike] this year, at some tracks I feel okay and some race tracks I don’t."
Honda’s dilemma: Focus on Marquez or spread the wealth?
It’s been an unusual season for Honda, which has both gained and suffered in equal measures by developing a bike around Marquez’s particularly unique riding style.
To defend Crutchlow’s point, he doesn’t have the same movement and style on the bike as Marquez does and his comments about being unable to turn it the way he wants are certainly indicative of the troubles he faces at tracks that don’t suit the Honda, like Misano.
He is at least faring better than Jorge Lorenzo, though Crutchlow has been outperformed by Nakagami, who has proven quicker than him on several occasions this year aboard the 2018 specification RC213V
However, Crutchlow insists he would still be quicker than Nakagami were they competing on equal machinery, pointing out the 2018 Honda which won last year’s title is more competitive at certain venues because of its more compliant set up.
Whilst Crutchlow talking up Marquez’s ‘miracle’ efforts are often perceived as a way to frame his own performances – which has delivered podium results in 2019 but seen him fall victim to several crashes as well – his comments are a sign of the frustration that Honda has put all of its resource behind just one rider.
Whilst on paper Marquez’s dominance of this era is delivering the titles Honda so dearly desires, could it afford to rely on its #1 rider’s talent to still deliver the goods whilst giving its other representatives a more accommodating machine?
What next for Cal Crutchlow?
For a rider that followed the less conventional BSB – WorldSSP – WorldSBK route to MotoGP, rather than via the grand prix feeder series’, Cal Crutchlow has sustained a remarkably long tenure at the highest level, especially compared to the likes of Troy Bayliss and James Toseland before him.
However, flashes of form notwithstanding, it’s been a somewhat disappointing year for Crutchlow, with Marquez’s performances – regardless of his affinity with the bike – coupled to Nakagami’s competitiveness overshadowing his two podiums. By contrast, Fabio Quartararo and Jack Miller have been on a par with their factory counterparts at Yamaha and Ducati, while Crutchlow trails both in the unofficial ‘satellite’ rankings.
On the flip side, there is a potential opportunity for Crutchlow beyond 2020 if Lorenzo’s form doesn’t improve and he inevitably seeks alternative options for the following year, opening up a spot alongside Marquez.
While Crutchlow would be up against almost every other rider for a sought after ride, Lorenzo’s struggles may prompt Honda to consider a reliable – and experienced – team-mate capable of good (if not sparkling) results on an admittedly difficult bike that has already bamboozled a rider of Lorenzo’s quality.
Much will arguably depend on how Crutchlow compares to Nakagami should Honda do as rumoured and give the Japanese protégé a current-spec machine in 2020 to put them on a direct par.
