Submitted by Kropotkin on Thu, 2008-08-28 00:08.
After three disastrous races in a row of Michelin, news stories on riders complaining about the French company's tires are as common as discussions of the weather in England. So much so that another story about tires barely generates any interest at all.
Unless, of course, that rider in the story is Dani Pedrosa, and the person complaining about the tires is Masumi Hamane, president of HRC. Neil Spalding interviewed the HRC boss after the race at Brno for the Spanish weekly magazine Solo Moto, and in this interview, Hamane gave his biggest hint yet that the factory Honda team will switch to Bridgestone next year.
"As an engineer, I don't understand how Michelin can make so many mistakes three races in a row," Hamane told Spalding. "We're sure Michelin is working hard, but we've had problems at the Sachsenring, Laguna Seca and here (Brno - MGPM)" he continued.
Worse criticism was to come. "We want to find a way to solve this problem, but it looks like they don't think they've found the reason for the mistakes, what's more, they certainly haven't been able to convince us," Hamane told Spalding. When asked if they would support a switch to Bridgestones for the factory team, Hamane was curt: "Yes".
