If you can't beat him, sign him...

Sign Valentino Rossi to drive for the BAR Honda Formula One team - that's the only chance Honda has of 'beating' the Yamaha star in MotoGP according to Crash.net viewers.

Our online poll asked Crash.net's massive MotoGP audience what Honda needed to do to defeat the Yamaha backed reigning world champion - who currently holds a massive 37-point over Marco Melandri after the first four rounds of the 2005 season.

Indeed, Rossi has won three of those four races - Camel Honda's Alex Barros taking victory in the wet-dry Estoril race - and finished second in the other, while Honda's star riders, Sete Gibernau and Max Biaggi, have hit problems.

Gibernau - runner-up to Rossi for the past two seasons - has been given factory status this year and been in contention for victory at three of the four races, but fell from the lead at Estoril then suffered tyre problems at Shanghai, blunting his challenge. Sete has finished second to Rossi in the other two races.

Meanwhile, Biaggi's dream Repsol Honda ride has turned into a nightmare with handling problems preventing the Roman from challenging at the front. His best finish is third and the official HRC team appear to be struggling to set-up their machines as well as the satellite Movistar and Camel Honda outfits.

Gibernau is currently third in the standings, 42-points behind Rossi, with Biaggi fourth and a further 6-points adrift of the famous #46.

Faced with such a worrying situation, Crash.net asked what Honda needed to do to have any chance of beating Rossi - with eleven very different options offered for voting.

Of those, the overwhelming winner was "Sign Rossi to drive for BAR Honda in Formula One", securing 43.5% of the vote. Rossi was a Honda MotoGP rider from 2000-2003 - winning his first three premier-class world titles with HRC before an acrimonious split...

It would take a miracle to tempt The Doctor back on an RCV, but just maybe the offer of a contract with the part Honda owned BAR F1 team would solve HRC's MotoGP problems indirectly. The trouble is that Rossi looks set to commit to another season, at least, with Yamaha in MotoGP before any possible four-wheel switch.

But a more immediate, and constructive, solution is for Honda to develop different RCVs for Gibernau and Biaggi - an option that finished second in the online poll with 17% of the vote.

It would appear that those Crash.net viewers feel that the riding styles of Gibernau and Biaggi - plus the current chronic handling problems suffered by the latter - are so different that they can only be solved by two separate development processes for each rider, even if that results in two very different bikes.

It is therefore implied that a 'compromise' approach to factory developments - with new parts designed to suit both riders - won't be enough to beat Rossi.

Third in the online poll was the option of Honda concentrating their efforts exclusively on Gibernau, which claimed 12% of the total vote.

Gibernau has been Rossi's closest rival for the past two seasons despite riding for a satellite team and, while he may now have a factory bike, a significant number of viewers don't think that alone will be enough.

In other words, Sete needs the undivided attention of HRC to stand any chance of defeating Valentino. This will be almost impossible since the Repsol outfit is Honda's official team - but if Honda wants to beat Rossi...

The fourth most popular option was to "abandon 2005 and plan for the future". No specifics were given but the design of a new MotoGP machine and the grooming of new factory riders from 250GP or WSBK was assumed. This choice received 7.8% of the vote.

The remaining seven options all totalled less than 5% and were ranked as follows (most popular first):

Give more support to Melandri; Support satellite Honda teams more; Double the amount of testing for rest of season; Head hunt rival race engineers/team members; Switch at least one Honda team to Bridgestone tyres for '06; Offer a financial bonus to any MotoGP rider who beats Rossi; Use team orders to help Gibernau and Biaggi.

The fifth round of the 2005 MotoGP World Championship, the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, will take place on June 5.