On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 15:02:56 +0100, Paul Corfield wrote: [QUOTE] Isn't the satellite team more of a reference to Honda and their apparent reluctance to share the top notch HRC components with the team that is doing best? While I can sort of understand that they would wish to concentrate efforts on the official team it seems a tad short sighted of Honda not to swallow their pride and help the best performing Honda riders - assuming, of course, that they do actually want to win the championship in terms of top rider, top team and top constructor.[/QUOTE] There was a quite interesting column in MCN on this subject. Supposedly, the problem is with Repsol, who insist that Barros rides for them and that he gets the new parts first. Honda can't get around that unless they find a new sponsor.