Rating the Riders of MotoGP 2014: Dani Pedrosa

After looking at the top three finishers in MotoGP, our review of 2014 turns to the riders who didn’t make it onto the podium. After Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, we turn our attention to the men who finished behind them. Today, we review the seasons of Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso.

4th – 246 points – Dani Pedrosa

Dani Pedrosa is easily the best rider never to win a MotoGP title, and if anything, 2014 merely reinforced that reputation.

By almost anyone’s standards, ten podiums, including a victory, and a total of 246 points – his fourth best since joining the premier class – is an outstanding year. But for a rider with aspirations of becoming world champion, it is simply not good enough.

Looked at another way, this was the worst season Pedrosa has had in MotoGP. The Repsol Honda rider has always managed to score multiple victories each year, even during his debut in 2006. This year, he never really looked a threat, except at Brno.

Throughout the year, Pedrosa was consistently behind the front runners, never capable of making a push to dominate.

What was Pedrosa’s biggest problem in 2014? Quite simply, the team’s approach to fixing the shortcomings of the preceding season.

In 2013, Pedrosa had found himself coming up short in the second half of races, getting overhauled by either Marc Márquez or Jorge Lorenzo.

Over the winter, his crew, under chief mechanic Mike Leitner, had worked on a strategy to counter this situation, adjusting the balance of the bike to make it faster during the second half of the race.

The problem Pedrosa faced was that making the bike faster in the second half meant sacrificing some speed at the start, traditionally the strongest part of his race. In previous years, Pedrosa was a safe bet to be the first rider into the first corner.

In 2014, it was rare for him to get into the first corner inside the top five. That left him stuck behind other riders and struggling with a bike that wasn’t quite where he wanted it, his Honda RC213V only coming into its own as the fuel burnt off and the tires started to wear.

By the time he got past them, the leaders were too far gone for him to be able to catch them.

Pedrosa’s predicament was made worse by the allowances made to Ducati. The soft tire the Bologna bikes were allowed meant that Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone often qualified very well, and ahead of Pedrosa.

Though Pedrosa had little problem lapping faster than the Ducatis during the race, getting past them was a different matter altogether. The Desmosedici had good top speed and, especially in the second half of the season, was very strong on the brakes.

It still would not turn, however, so Pedrosa would find himself parked behind a Ducati in the corners, struggling to get good enough drive to blast past on the straights, and unable to pass the bikes on the straights.

The change of strategy did not sit well with Pedrosa. He was frustrated at finding himself stuck in traffic. He pushed for more speed at the start of the race, but progress was not made at the pace he wanted. Like a tiger defanged, he felt he had been robbed of his strongest weapon.

Crew chief Mike Leitner felt that the cause needed to be sought elsewhere, pointing out to me at Silverstone that it was not so much that Pedrosa was slower, but that the rest had all caught up.

“Now, these riders are all prepared to push hard from the beginning on, right from the start. I don’t think we made a step back, I think we stayed where we are. We just improved a little, because we were already at the limit, but the others also made a step.”

Leitner’s view exposed an underlying fracture in the relationship between crew chief and rider. From mid-season, rumors emerged from the Pedrosa camp that the Spaniard was unhappy with his crew chief, and was looking for a replacement.

By the end of September, the situation seemed to have been resolved, with Pedrosa accepting he would have to continue with Leitner. Leitner, however, was not so happy, especially after Pedrosa also had two of his mechanics replaced.

The Austrian handed in his notice, announcing he would like to spend some time at home, and away from MotoGP for a little while, though he has been linked with the MotoGP project KTM are putting together.

For 2015, Pedrosa will have a new crew chief in former data engineer Ramon Aurin. He will have a bike which should be a little easier to ride, if HRC vice president Shuhei Nakamoto’s word is to be believed.

But he will face the same challenges in the coming year as he faced in 2014: an exceptional and ambitious young teammate, a hungry and improving Valentino Rossi, and a Jorge Lorenzo out for revenge. Pedrosa will have to find improvement inside himself if he is to make real progress next year.