Did the Honda mentality really change?

[stevegula]

Rossi left Honda because they pretty much stated he wasn't a part of the equation at all, that their bike was all that mattered. And then, during Pedrosa's extension announcement it gets said:

"Maybe you wonder why it took so long for us to reach this agreement," said Hamane. "We had a full conversation about what we should do to win races for the remainder of this year and also to build the structure for the future which will let us win races. We continued our negotiation until today in order for both parties to be in full agreement.

"We are in the era of Japanese manufacturers fighting against an Italian manufacturer, which is a kind of repeat of the racing situation in the sixties," he continued. "Under these circumstances, I became the president of HRC on April 1st and since then I have been thinking what is the most important thing in racing. The conclusion I reached is, the most important thing is human relationships."

It's been rumored for a month now and finally confirmed Pedrosa was holding out because he doesn't think Michelin will be competitive next year and as a result he can't be competitive. But do you think Rossi leaving (and then dominating) was a big enough slap in the face for Honda to have actually rethought their stance?

[G.Irish]

I read that and was rather surprised too. Hamane is the new HRC president so maybe he will take a different approach but it would really be somewhat different to what HRC has done for the majority of its existence (having been created in '82 I believe).

Saying they are going to emphasize the human factor and doing it are two different things. But I think there could be a couple of reasons for a change in at the top like this.

For one, losing Rossi like you said could be a factor. They were able to beat him last year but even now if Stoner was out of the picture he'd be beating Honda. It could be that it is finally dawning on him how important he was. With Rossi Honda would have won every championship since 2001 and maybe it would be just now they'd be struggling.

I think another motivation for the change might be that they very nearly threw the 06 championship away because they didn't identify and fix the problem with Nicky's clutch fast enough. Their test rider was reluctant to criticize the bike and as such the problem went on longer than it should have.

But who really knows what the impetus was behind this and what it really means.