The last three weekends of the World SBK Championship have shown that Honda has its early season problems under control. With the new 2024 version of the CBR1000RR Fireblade, the Honda team has had a disastrous start to the season.
Honda has been the clear bottom of the five manufacturers in the opening race weekends, but has recently consistently scored more points than Yamaha. Honda also made a good impression in the Friday test session in Estoril (Portugal). Official driver Iker Lecuona moved up to fifth position in FP2.
In previous race weekends at Magny-Cours, Cremona and Aragon, Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge finished all races in the top 10. At the start of the season, the two factory Honda riders sometimes struggled to finish in the points.
“At the beginning of the season we lost ourselves 100%,” admits factory Honda rider Iker Lecuona in an exclusive interview with Motorsport-Total.com. “At the beginning of the season we took paths that weren’t right. We had to go back and look for other options.”
Why Honda was late to the start of the 2024 season
Honda was the only one of the five manufacturers involved to present a new homologated model. However, things went in the wrong direction with the 2024 Fireblade. The team didn’t understand how to get the most out of the Fireblade, which had been revised in great detail.
The new Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade for the 2024 model
Photo: Honda
“At the beginning of the season it was very difficult to put everything together,” confirms Iker Lecuona. The start of 2024 was particularly difficult for Lecuona. The Spaniard had a new technical boss, Tom Jojic, and missed the Philipp Island and Assen races due to injury.
Iker Lecuona starts with the problem in the season, he finds himself on the podium
Photo: Motorsport Images
Things went much better for Honda from Misano onwards. At the event in Italy, Lecuona finished all three races in the top 10. “We managed to build a solid base in Misano. We did a lot of testing in that period, which helped us understand the bike better,” reveals Lecuona , underlining the importance of the tests, which improved the understanding of the new Honda.
Mangelnden Einsatz kann man Iker Lecuona nicht vorwerfen
Photo: Motorsport Images
The upward trend continued. “Most and Magny-Cours are normally our most difficult circuits. But the Most weekend was really good,” said Lecuona, looking back at the July event in the Czech Republic. The Spaniard fought for the podium in subsequent events in Magny-Cours and Cremona.
Honda top speeds aren’t so great anymore: because less is better
Compared to previous years, we notice that the Honda Superbike no longer reaches such high top speeds on straights. In the early years, Honda riders usually led the top speed rankings and even left the Ducati riders behind. This year the situation has changed. Honda is not slow, but Ducati and BMW have a slight advantage.
Honda hat die Leistungsentfaltung etwas sanfter gestaltet
Photo: Motorsport Images
Are the lower top speeds due to the new fuel with 40% organic content? Or the reduced amount of fuel in races? Did Honda have to create more conservative engine maps to cope with the race distance?
Iker Lecuona explains the reduction in top speeds with smoother power delivery: “We made some changes to make the bike more rideable. Before we were very fast on the straights, but it was impossible to control the power in corners.”
Laut Iker Lecuona hat die Honda aktuell zwei Schwächen
Photo: WorldSBK.com
“To improve tire life, we had to reduce the power a little. Now the bike reacts more delicately. We sacrificed a little top speed, but the bike handles the tires better. So we gained more than we had lost”, explains the official Honda rider.
Even though Honda has made significant progress, there is still room for improvement. “Our biggest weak points at the moment are the corners and the grip on the lean angle. Compared to previous years, however, we can exploit the grip better”, compares Lecuona.
Iker Lecuona: “We must move away from the Japanese mentality”
According to Iker Lecuona, BMW’s example demonstrates how quickly a manufacturer can catch up with the leaders. The Spaniard sends an important message to Honda: “They must change their mentality. They must move away from the Japanese mentality and move towards that of BMW”.
BMW’s recent successes are, of course, largely due to the efforts of Toprak Razgatlioglu. But the testing work in the background also contributed to the sporting rise of the Munich company.
Iker Lecuona sees the Entwicklung of BMW as Vorbild an
Photo: Motorsport Images
Why is there no European HRC test team for the SBK project? “A test team could help us,” commented Lecuona. “It would allow us to test parts we can’t use yet. You can’t find improvements unless you make extreme modifications.”
“Last year BMW also struggled at the beginning. But they took a step forward towards the middle of the season. And at the end of the season they took another step forward. The test team certainly helped them. They have Sylvain Guintoli , who is an excellent driver and certainly makes a great contribution”, said Lecuona, looking at the BMW project.
Two pilots are not enough: more interchange is needed
Honda has a strong line-up of test riders for next year. For the MotoGP project alone, three strong riders – Aleix Espargaro, Takaaki Nakagami and Stefan Bradl – are ready to test the new developments.
“MotoGP and Superbike are completely different,” warns Lecuona. “But it’s true, there are a lot of testers. With ‘Taka’ you can go a step further, because he is in direct dialogue with the engineers in Japan and is able to judge whether something is better or not. Bradl also has a lot of experience with Honda. And then there is Aleix, who is new with Honda and is a very fast rider.
Ex-BSB-Champion Tarran Mackenzie cann his Talent not in Ergebnisse umwandeln
Photo: Motorsport Images
Another point is the situation with the MIE customer team. While BMW is sending four identical bikes to the start this year and collecting a lot of data, there are some differences between the factory Honda team and the MIE team. In practice, HRC can only analyze data from two drivers, as the MIE team’s information is unusable.
“They can see our data. But I don’t know what they actually use,” Lecuona said, referring to the MIE team. “But the bikes are actually more similar than last year. In the 2023 season they used a completely different approach to us. I hope that next year they will use the same bike as us, because you can’t improve with just two bikes.”
When will Honda’s Superbike project explode?
Honda has been trying to win in the Superbike World Championship since the 2020 season. Only a few podiums have been achieved so far. Expectations have grown from season to season, but the reality is that Lecuona and Vierge have scored fewer points every year.
Alvaro Bautista announces 2020 and 2021 news at Honda
Photo: Motorsport Images
When will HRC finally be a contender for World Superbike victories? “We have always said ‘maybe next year’, but so far this plan has never worked. At the moment it is impossible to say whether we will need one, two, three or ten years,” explains Lecuona.
“If the Japanese change their mentality, move towards the Europeans, develop the bike faster, create a testing team and switch to a different way of working, then perhaps it will only take a year, like for BMW”, reflects Lecuona and emphasizes: “HRC has the potential.”
Laut Iker Lecuona hat HRC das Potenzial, um in der WSBK zu gewinnen
Photo: Honda
“It’s all there. It’s not that something is missing, but they have to think differently. They’ve already made some good steps,” says Lecuona, acknowledging the positive signs. “Let’s see what will happen in the winter, if we can take another step forward,” observes the Spaniard, who hopes Honda will carry the momentum of the 2024 season into the winter break.
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