HM Plant Honda team boss Havier Beltran has said he is looking for the final pieces of the jigsaw which will enable his riders to run at the sharp end of British Superbikes for the rest of the season and that not being able to recover from small mistakes is frustrating.
The Fireblades have been there or thereabouts all season but Beltran says that both Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow find it hard to fight back into contention if either one of them makes a small error. And the team was disappointed with the results from this weekend.
"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, he said.
"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."