MotoGP | Mir: “Wrong 2024 bike. Honda takes responsibility”

It looked like Honda had made some real progress with its 2024 bike when it appeared in the Valencia test last November, but it turned out to be a false dawn.

HRC sits bottom of the constructors' standings with just eight points after the first two rounds of the 2024 season, with Mir achieving a best 11th place in Portugal.

Honda riders occupied the last four places in the timesheets at the end of Friday practice for the Grand Prix of the Americas, with Mir suffering a crash and finishing in 20th place, 2.047s off the reference time .

Admitting he wasn't sure he'd get a good result at the weekend, Mir says Honda appears to be “paying the consequences” for taking the wrong direction in developing the 2024 RC213V.

“I'm not very convinced of what we did today,” he said Friday. “We're having some problems, more than I probably expected after early season testing. This problem at one track and another and another is not getting better, we're not getting better.”

“I can't say what the problem is, but I think we took a direction that wasn't the right one and now we are paying the consequences. We have to keep working.”

“The fact is that we have probably identified the problem and now we have to work on it, and the reality is that today my position is probably not the real one because I had the accident but I think I didn't have the chance to go to Q2.”

“Last year I was closer, I missed Q2 by a couple of tenths. At the moment we are struggling more than last year on this track and also in Portimao.”

Asked if he was confident that the HRC could get out of its problems, Mir replied: “The important thing is to take responsibility for what is happening, change quickly and try to change the direction quickly.”

“This is very important. This is where we need to be smart with the test, and the concession will be very useful to do that. As a driver I feel strong, I'm pushing, I'm not giving up, but at the moment we have a limit.”

Honda took its last grand prix win at the Circuit of the Americas 12 months ago thanks to Alex Rins, but Mir notes that the bike's braking potential and agility have worsened in this time.

“Before, the braking and cornering of this bike were quite good, and we can see that it was very agile, more agile than other bikes. Now it's not,” he concluded.