Honda is hoping that its lead rider Joan Mir can keep his motivation degree till it is ready to produce a aggressive bike in MotoGP once more.
The Japanese producer’s 2024 marketing campaign was arguably its worst-ever within the premier class, because it ended the yr on the backside of the standings with simply 75 factors on the board.
On the manufacturing facility RC213V, Mir mustered simply 21 factors throughout the season, ending twenty first and solely forward of team-mate Luca Marini within the riders’ standings. Each have been outscored by LCR duo Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami, dealing an extra blow to HRC’s picture.
Group boss Alberto Puig admitted that Honda’s aggressive wrestle has made life tough for 2020 champion Mir, however he needs the Spaniard to retain the identical want to achieve MotoGP.
“Joan is already a world champion in MotoGP, so the present scenario will not be so snug for him,” Puig informed the official MotoGP web site.
“The bike will not be on the degree. He’s attempting, he has had some crashes, clearly. If you end up a champion, you’re pushing, you need to have the end result, however nonetheless issues couldn’t match.
“I hope he can preserve his motivation even in tough instances.”
Joan Mir, Repsol Honda Group
Picture by: Repsol Media
Puig feels Honda was capable of finding a transparent path with the event of the bike after numerous experiments throughout the first half of the 2024 season.
A transparent uplift in efficiency was seen from the second spherical in Misano, with Zarco in a position to ship two top-10 finishes throughout the flyaway races in Asia.
Nevertheless, whereas Puig takes encouragement from the progress made by the crew, he admitted that the outcomes have been far beneath expectations.
“It isn’t been straightforward, clearly. The outcomes will not be what we wish,” he conceded.
“But it surely’s been a yr that….[in the] first a part of the season we have been attempting many many issues and options and within the second a part of the yr we roughly had an thought of what can work or not.
“We made some enhancements, not as a lot as we might have favored. We made some enhancements and we’re in fixed analysis of methods to put together subsequent yr’s machine.
“Nonetheless we did not make the end result we’re in search of. However from our engineering standpoint, the engineers are understanding increasingly more methods to proceed, the place to go, and the way now we have to do, which is necessary. however this in all probability takes time to see the outcomes, the truth on the paper.”
Alberto Puig, Group Principal Repsol Honda Group
Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Photographs
Sustaining Honda’s drive to return to the entrance, Puig insisted: “The one factor we by no means misplaced was our will to return again.
“That is the need that drives you to maintain on going, despite the fact that we’re clearly behind, and it is a truth.”
On this article
Rachit Thukral
MotoGP
Joan Mir
Honda HRC
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