The HM Plant Honda team can’t be overly happy with the way British Superbikes has gone this year. In a motorsport season full of rider and driver changes, especially in BSB, the team has still managed to stand out.

Those changes continue this week though, with Michael Rutter back in BSB for the fifth time, now on a Ducati; and in Singapore for the Formula 1, talk of Romain Grosjean feeling unwell and Lucas di Grassi on standby to be the third driver to sit in the second Renault this season.

But back to HM Plant Honda. Catching up on highlights of the Croft meeting this morning, it struck me that the team probably hasn’t done as badly as it seems. The reason their riders aren’t higher in the standings is that there have been three different men on one of the bikes, and four on the other. So let’s add them up.

Josh Brookes missed the first round due to visa issues, so it was Steve Plater on the bike. Brookes was then on the bike for rounds 2 to 7, but suspended from round 8 and 9, when Karl Muggeridge jumped on. Brookes returned for round 10. Brookes himself is on 131 points, but if we add on Plater’s 16 and Muggeridge’s 44, then he’d be on 191.

Glen Richards completed the first six rounds, but since then has been out injured, though he returns this weekend at Silverstone. He was replaced by Steve Brogan for rounds 7 and 8, John McGuinness for round 9, and Ryuchi Kyonari for round 10. Richards has 103 points, so we add to that 27.5 from Brogan, 4 from McGuinness, and 13 from Kyonari, making 147.5.

That would move Richards up from 12th to 5th, and Brookes up from 5th to 4th. That wouldn’t move them above the two Airwaves Yamaha riders, but that’s fair enough, because the Yamaha is probably the class of the field.

But crucially they’d remain behind the Hydrex Honda of Stuart Easton, meaning the top Honda rider still wouldn’t be on a factory bike. So whichever way we look at it, HM Plant Honda still wouldn’t be pleased.