After airing a conspiracy theory that was floating around about the Superprestigio, we had a load of great feedback and discussion.
JP wrote...
Marc had a hotrod CRF that had several maps that he was choosing from during the heats. a few times he was on the straight reaching over to the right bar with his left hand changing settings on the bike. The commentators on Fanschoice.tv pointed it out a few times, wondering what he was doing, then saying he had multiple engine maps to choose from, and his bike was being worked on by his MotoGP engineers. Brad (if I heard him right while the commentators talked over him)[edit- just read a Crash.net post with him saying that he really messed up tire selection, so yeah, I heard him right] though did mention he missed the tire setup for the last race and had no traction. Also, the bikes don't look to have the needed wiring for TC to be used. Speed sensors for both wheels would be needed or some other way to judge bike speed vs wheel speed/spin. I'd bet it wasn't the TC that was the advantage, but the engine controls where he had a selection. TC also tends to have a particular sound when on a bike without a fly-by-wire throttle because it isn't able to shut the butterflies, so it uses ignition and dropping spark. But. if you start losing traction, and can select a different ignition and EFI map to soften the engine, et viola. Marc was the only one I saw doing that during a race. Big advantage, anyhow. Elias wasn't on a Honda and was out to lunch until getting setup help from his old MGP mechanic, and Jared Mees via phone calls. So saying him also having TC was because he won Moto2 on a Honda engined is a bit of a reach. I doubt Yoshimira Suzuki or Catalan Suzuki (Who Elias said were all faster than him Thursday) gave him a TC setup from Honda. Did Brad send a bike this time, or was it provided to him?
Lots of good stuff in there. It was me, who made the mistake about Elias being on a Honda. And yes, it is a bit of a reach, but that's why it's a conspiracy theory, not a news story. I'm not sure the sound of well set up traction control would be audible over a TV feed with so much other noise, and bikes geared to hit the rev limiter on the straights, but that's just more conspiracy fuel.
None of this was supposed to put any doubts about Marquez being a hell of a rider, Elias too.