MotoGP | Puig: “Honda in September will be very different from now”

Honda is working hard to return to the glories of the past and the first differences between last year's bike and that of 2024 were already seen in the first tests in Valencia last November. In Sepang, where pre-season tests were held last week, we were able to see an even different RC213V, according to what the two official riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini reported.

Today, on the occasion of the Honda presentation held in Madrid, we were also able to discover the new livery of the bike, which for the first time does not have the dominance of the Repsol colors. The post-Marc Marquez era has begun and the Tokyo manufacturer is continuing its incessant work to try to reduce the gap to the top teams.

This is also confirmed by Alberto Puig, HRC MotoGP team manager, who to the media, including Motorsport.com, expressed his satisfaction in seeing how the tests went in Malaysia: “The Sepang tests were very interesting because we needed to find a direction. We have a lot of things to improve, but the pace was interesting. The riders saw the difference from Valencia, we still have many things to improve, but we have made some interesting steps forward. We will try to exploit concessions and return to those positions that belong to us.”

Joan Mir, Luca Marini, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Repsol Media

Puig then goes into specifics, explaining what Honda worked on to make these steps forward that we have seen: “It was a matter of reviewing everything a bit, there was the issue of weight which was important to improve. You always try to reach the limit, in racing you can never be happy, you always have to improve, this applies to both the drivers and the technicians. We are happy, we have two young riders and a great desire to improve.”

“The bike has changed a lot,” continues Puig. “To remove weight, many parts need to be redesigned and we did an exhaustive job in a short time. As for the engine, it has been revised in many parts, which is more difficult than rebuilding it from scratch. We will develop it during the season, probably in September it will be very different.”

Therefore, taking advantage of the concessions provided by the regulation, Honda intends not only to continue working on the RC213, which it expects to change a lot from the beginning to the end of the season. The approach, therefore, is completely different compared to a short time ago: “The last few years have not gone well for many reasons. Now the foundations have been laid to begin a real recovery. We hope to close the gap, it would be very nice to think about the possibility of fighting for the podium and winning races, perhaps after the summer. It's our goal. We are happy, we have two young riders who will give their all.”

A new historical period now begins for Honda, which sees Mir and Marini among its ranks, with the latter taking over from Marc Marquez. After 11 seasons, the eight-time world champion has chosen a different path, but has never ruled out the possibility of crossing paths with that of Honda again. However, at the moment Puig has some doubts: “Will Marc return? I don't know, I'm direct. From our point of view, the fact that he isn't there doesn't put any less pressure on us.”