In the tests last week in Sepang there were no paws that particularly impressed, but certainly the Honda RC213V is one of the bikes that aroused the most interest. The Japanese company had promised that it would radically revise some concepts of its prototype and it cannot be said that it has not kept its promise.
Once we landed in Malaysia, it was enough to take a quick glance at the bikes of Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro to realize the changes so radical that the 2021 version seems much more obsolete than a prototype of just a year ago.
Repsol Honda RC213V
Photo by: Repsol Media
The windshield, for example, has a much more aggressive shape, with the airbox now tending to be stretched more upwards instead of being almost horizontal like on the previous bike. The aerodynamics are also very accurate, with a double-profile wing that partly incorporates the concepts introduced by the Aprilia, even if the version we see in the presentation photos is still the previous one.
The tail, on the other hand, is more Ducati-style, with an increased size, and with the exhaust that has been moved to a lateral position and no longer right in the center. After having seen it in action with black fairings during the Sepang tests, today for the first time the two pilots showed it in an online presentation with the traditional Repsol colors, with the new shape of the airbox that also allowed to increase the amount of white color on the front fairing.
But the engine was also particularly revised, because in the Honda racing department they worked for two years on this step, taking advantage of the freeze that had been imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Japanese engineers have also worked hard on the electronics to try to improve power delivery.
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Repsol Media
Honda plays a lot with this revolution, because it has to put two years behind its expectations, characterized by Marquez’s injury problems, forced to miss the entire 2020 season due to the fracture of his right humerus, for which he underwent three surgeries, but also the first two in 2021 for the same reason and then the last two due to a re-manifestation of a diplopia problem (double vision) remedied in a fall that occurred in an off-road training. But not before having managed to return to victory on three occasions, at Sachsenring, Austin and Misano.
If Pol Espargaro, confirmed as his teammate also for 2022, had already had the opportunity to evaluate the new package during the tests at the end of November, the HRC men were certainly eager to find out the feedback from the eight-time world champion. , who did not hide the fact that he found a very different bike than the one he had left before the last stop.
“The best thing about this bike is that when it pushes, the time comes,” said # 93 at the conclusion of testing in Malaysia. “It is true that it is very different and that I cannot take advantage of that strong point which was the corner entry. Now I have to set the time at the exit of the corners. At the moment I am adapting to the bike, and when I will be better physically, then I will do my last tenths of a second “, he added, underlining how he too needs to work on his condition after having been about two months without being able to get on the bike”.
The evolution is evident, if it is successful, the track will tell. Also because in a certain sense Marquez himself enters a new phase of his career, in which he will have to try to stop the rise of young people, after two names have registered in the golden register of the premier class in the last two years. new ones like Joan Mir and Fabio Quartararo. In practice, he finds himself reliving a situation very similar to that of Valentino Rossi when there was the rise of Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo. How will he fare now that he’s the champion everyone wants to beat?
Pol Espargaro, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Repsol Media
#MotoGP #Honda #RC213V #revolution #great