Joan Mir seems to be more optimistic regarding Honda’s improvements after last week’s test in Mugello – believing that there will be progress during the summer.
Before the Catalan GP, the rider from Palma de Mallorca talked about that test: ‘We made a lot of laps, it was a very productive test. We tried quite a lot of things, aerodynamics especially. Then a different configuration on the engine side. It was quite productive. We will not get here what we requested on the test – so we will have a similar package. But we are in that process of working. I think we will need probably this month and the two races that we have at the end of June. Then we have one month more [the summer break], and I think from then on we will make a step forward. I’m sure’.
Asked about the new engine, Mir explained: ‘It was better, it helps the bike a little bit more to turn. That was an area that we lost a bit the way. But on the other hand, the power changes a bit. They have to work also on the connection, so they have to put a bit all together. We saw that can have some positive things, but they need to work to make a proper step in the weak points. So we are a bit on that at the moment’.
As for the aerodynamics, the 2020 world champion commented: ‘It was good, it was positive. It wasn’t a big evolution, but it was a step. I will not use it here, I will probably use it in the next race because the homologation and this stuff. But we are following the steps’.
The evolutions have an impact in the feeling only or also in the stopwatch? Mir answered: ‘That is a good question. To be translated on the lap times, we also have to improve the weak points. Because at the moment it was better, in some areas a lot better, but at the end we lost a lot of things in the weak points. If they can make the good things that we have now with the good things that we had in the past, then we’ll make a step and in terms of lap time we will feel it a lot’.