[kropotkin thinks...] - The Problem With Alice: Toni Elias Speaks

[MSMC NewsBot]

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In motorcycle racing, as in all endeavors in life, some people do better than others. And whenever one competitor does better than another, the search starts for just why that should be.

In a team sport - which MotoGP is, despite the overriding importance of the ability of a single individual, the rider - fingers are quck to be pointed at elements within a team, or even the team as a whole, when a team underperforms. Sometimes, such accusations are entirely justified, and there really is a single cause of the team's woes, but more often than not, when a team does not live up to expectations, the reality is a good deal more complicated than it might seem at first glance.

Two examples come to mind inside the MotoGP paddock. The first is the JiR Honda team, led by Luca Montiron. After JiR split from Pramac after the 2004 season, Makoto Tamada's results took a nosedive. What's more, a similar thing happened to Shinya Nakano when he joined the team, and the JiR team only saw success again after the team was effectively taken over by Team Scot once Andrea Dovizioso entered the MotoGP class. In this case, the cause seemed fairly straightforward: Montiron had talented riders and proven equipment, and yet the results were consistently mediocre at best. Once Montiron was pushed aside, the results saw a dramatic turnaround, justifying the conclusion that the problem was most likely to be Luca Montiron, and his ability to run a team.

The other example is what was this year the Alice Ducati team, owned by Pramac, and run for the first part of the year by Luis d'Antin. At first glance, conclusions about the team's poor performance could be put down to the same cause as JiR's: poor management. After all, Toni Elias and Sylvain Guintoli, two riders who had performed above expectations on other equipment, were suddenly struggling at the back of the field. Once Luis d'Antin was fired by the team, just prior to the Sachsenring MotoGP round in July, the results improved dramatically, Elias getting back-to-back podiums in Brno and Misano. But Elias' dismal performance in the final races of the year, as well as a closer examination of the history of the team paints a much more complicated picture than just poor management.

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