No money to increase Honda MotoGP budget
Added on Sunday, December 27th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
No money to increase Honda MotoGP budget
Honda have confirmed that they will not be increasing their MotoGP budget in an attempt to win the 2010 constructor’s championship, with HRC boss Shuhei Nakamoto claiming that even if the cash was there, it would still not be enough to close the gap between them, Ducati and Yamaha.
Honda have fallen behind Ducati and Yamaha in recent years, with no constructor’s championship win in the 800cc era. Their last constructor’s championship came back in 2006 when Nicky Hayden was crowned World Champion in the last series to use 990cc engines – their first since Valentino Rossi left for Yamaha in 2003.
Since 2007, Honda have clocked up just seven race wins in the MotoGP class, six of which have come from Dani Pedrosa, compared to Ducati’s 21 and Yamaha’s 24 but HRC have insisted that they do not have the cash to catch up with the pacesetters at the moment.
Asked whether it would take larger cash investment from HRC to win back the world title, HRC boss Shuhei Nakamoto told Motorcycle News: “There is no increase in budget from Honda.
“Maybe it will be the same as this year, which makes it difficult for our machine development. Even if we had the same budget as the US Government it would not be enough!”
