I don't agree that Tamada is mid-pack at best - for instance, he is better than Laconi and Fabrizio, who consistently run ahead of him. Tamada won MotoGP races. His results declined when he started getting rides for mediocre teams, like Konica Minolta Honda (where Shinya Nakano struggled as well) and Tech3 Yamaha (which ran on uncompetitive Dunlop tyres at the time). Since his move to Kawasaki, he has been a shadow of his real self, due to bad machinery. I think that if he was on a Honda, Yamaha or any other bike, he would be doing much better, getting podiums and also some wins. But that is the way it can go.