HM Plant Honda team manager Havier Beltran has vowed to deliver Cal Crutchlow and Leon Haslam the bike capable of challenging for victories on a regular basis after a tough weekend at
Snetterton.
HM Plant have struggled against arch-rivals GSE Racing and their Airwaves Ducati this season, with championship leader Shane Byrne destroying the opposition by scoring seven wins and three second place finishes in the ten races this year.
The reigning champions, who won the title with Ryuichi Kiyonari last season, have placed much of the blame on their struggles to get the new CBR1000RR Fireblade up to speed as quickly as Ducati have with their 1098.
Indeed, after scoring a best of just third place around a track that is widely perceived to be a ‘Honda circuit', Beltran is frustrated they don't have a bike capable to battling through the order in much the same way that Byrne has several times this year.
“It's a disappointing set of results as we wanted podiums really,” he said. “We can see that with the new CBR1000RR Fireblade we just have a couple of pieces in the jigsaw to put in place to get the thing right at the sharp-end.
“You can see that if either Leon or Cal makes a mistake it's hard for them to claw their way back up, while Shakey's package allows him to do that. Honda and the team are 100% behind the riders – we know they're frustrated and want to win and we know both of them can win races and championships.
“We're looking forward to a test at Cadwell Park on Wednesday to try a few things to find those missing elements in time for
Mallory Park.”
