The commentators (Julian and Keith?) on BTSport today were throwing around stats about this year vs last year. Here's a good one. Average race lap time improvement. 
- Dovi, 0.7s
- Rossi, 0.5s
- Lorenzo 0.4s
- Marquez 0.08s

That translates into huge improvements over the full race distances. It also shows that Marquez isn't going slow on this year's bike, he's doing more or less the same race times as last year. But everyone else has improved quite a bit.

Now imagine that Dovi and Crutchlow had got the 2015 bike last year which is not entirely impossible as it was held back until it was properly ready. They both would have won races going away. Then there's the question of what Cal would have done on the 2015 bike this year. I'm quite harsh on Cal for falling off too often but there's no denying his speed. What's unfortunate is his career path. It's like he's always a year late. Or moves a year early.