The difficulties in achieving a competitive performance are currently affecting all Honda riders. Even the specification of the bike tested in Jerez does not bring more encouraging indications.
LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami mentioned that the problems persist despite the many differences in the RC213V he tested on Monday in Jerez:
– I had the opportunity to do some laps and unfortunately I didn’t have any positive sensations. The main problem remained, even though it seems like a different bike – aerodynamics, frame, everything is different. But on track the feeling is the same, still lacking rear grip, turning. It’s the same feeling, so the lap time doesn’t come. We tried some things, we tried small things, small adjustments, but the problem is too big.
For the Japanese rider, the major difficulty lies in fast corners: ‘In high-speed corners the feeling is very bad. This is my strongest point, but somehow this year I have been much slower than last year, only in high-speed corners. In low-speed corners and braking I am improving a lot in the data, but unfortunately I always lose time in high-speed corners. I can’t carry speed, turning is very difficult. We tried a different idea and the feeling was that I was fast in fast corners. But I don’t know for the future; if we stick with this idea or try the 2024 specification and try to implement the new idea with this specification. I don’t know, let’s see what HRC decides for the future‘.
Nakagami also said: ‘On Friday I mentioned that I am having a lot of difficulties in high-speed corners, but they didn’t have any ideas during the weekend. On Monday’s test, we tried some things, found something, but we don’t know which direction HRC wants to take for the future‘.
