Honda is working hard to improve this season and Santi Hernández is now working with Joan Mir, a rider with whom the relationship is new especially after many years working closely with Marc Márquez. Even before the start of work in Losail this weekend, the Spaniard talked about the goals he had at that time, in terms of work order, as well as Mir himself.
In a video for Honda Racing, Mir’s new chief mechanic started by talking about the relationship with #36 and how it is Honda’s duty to try to acclimate him as best as possible: ‘With Joan we started the season in Valencia to try to understand more or less what he needs and of course, after working for a long time with Marc [Márquez] things are very different. The positive for me is that he is a rider who wants to learn, has an open mind to try things and is faster and we also have to give him our trust, as well as the team structure he is new to everything. I am happy with him and our goal at the moment is to try to be at the top but, of course, we are not in the best scenario’.
Then followed the plan of the structure for what would later be the work:
– The track in Losail is one where the conditions change a lot from FP1 to the afternoon free practice because the temperature in the morning to the afternoon changes a lot, the humidity and the track temperature and it is in this area that we have to work in a smarter way because in the morning what we test is different from the afternoon but we are lucky to have had two test days here, we have data and a base but we still have difficulties with the rear traction, which we lack, and we have to try to understand where to go to have a little more.
