Herve Poncharal interview

[gm2]

mebbe/prolly some of you have been reading this this week, but the 4th & final installment got posted today, so...

lots of interesting reading.

Herve Poncharal Marathon Interview Part 1 - Why The Rookie Rule Is A Good Thing
http://www.motogpmatters.com/news/2009/08/09/herve_poncharal_marathon_interview_part_.html

Herve Poncharal Marathon Interview Part 2 - Moto1 And Cost Cutting
http://www.motogpmatters.com/interview/2009/08/10/herve_poncharal_marathon_interview_part_.html

Herve Poncharal Marathon Interview Part 3 - How Tobacco Made MotoGP Too Expensive
http://www.motogpmatters.com/interview/2009/08/11/herve_poncharal_marathon_interview_part_.html

Herve Poncharal Marathon Interview Part 4 - Spies, Toseland And Why The 800s Are Still Exciting
http://www.motogpmatters.com/interview/2009/08/12/herve_poncharal_marathon_interview_part_.html

[mitt]

I liked this part from part 4:

HP: I see what you mean. First I think, I don't know, because nobody knows, nobody's got The Truth. So you know for example, before it was Honda and Michelin that was the unbeatable package. When Casey won the championship in 2007, they say, if you don't have a Ducati on Bridgestones, you can't do anything, if you have a Ducati on Bridgestones, anyone can win. Then we saw, year after year, there is only one guy who can tame this package. And some people say the Ducati on Bridgestones is a bad package. Yes, but how can the other guy do this? It's not easy, absolutely not. He's a man like you and me, he has more talent, but he's a man made of flesh and blood, he's no different.

So every time you have someone telling you "this is the truth" you have to be suspicious. There was a statistic (I can't remember, there are specialists who know this) Oh, 800s are killing the racing, there are so many tens of races without a pass on the last lap, then at Barcelona, we see three or four, I can't remember how many, passes for the lead on the last lap. So, suddenly, on 800s it was possible to pass, in three or four places in one lap. So all the theory that was saying it is impossible to pass on 800cc is broken. I think we saw since Barcelona, the racing is incredibly open, and there is a lot of overtaking, a lot of passing.

[gm2]

yeah.. and i thought his mention of the timing for bridgestone getting it really right coinciding with the change in the tire rule was apropos, considering "we" argued that point to death on TOS.

btw, the ben spies part 2 interview on soup today alludes to the whole who's going where when thing, also.  not conclusively, of course.

[csp808]

What a generous interview this kind of press is good for the sport because it helps us understand the difficulty of the decisions to be made. The major racing organizations could learn from this instead of filtered press dept generic answers

[Jester]

What a generous interview this kind of press is good for the sport because it helps us understand the difficulty of the decisions to be made. The major racing organizations could learn from this instead of filtered press dept generic answers

+1

Its rare we get frank answers to questions like this.  High-five to HP.