Honda must turn the page. Misano could be the opportunity to start making a change. Repsol in the GP of San Marino and the Riviera di Rimini has made official the end of the thirty-year sponsorship relationship, breaking a historic partnership. Luca Marini and Joann Mir missed Sunday’s race due to a strong intestinal virus, but the Italian rider, although a little weakened, wanted to be on track today to debut a new RC213V that should be the prefiguration of next year’s bike.
The Japanese manufacturer is fifth and last in the constructors’ world championship with 37 points against the 463 of Ducati which dominates the standings, while Valentino’s brother is 25th in the riders’ world championship with just one miserable point: the picture is simply bleak and the project needs to be completely revised.
And the fact that in the Misano tests Honda decided to debut a bike with a decidedly new aerodynamic look, says a lot about the need to break with a present that could not be more disappointing. Marini was in the garage early in the morning to discover this RCV213V that embodies a new aerodynamic philosophy. Nothing revolutionary, let it be clear, but the very precise desire to go in the direction of the ground effect that Aprilia and Ducati understood before and better than the others.
Here is the Honda tested by Marini with a new more enveloping windshield and a Ducati-style fairing
Photo by: Lorenza Dadderio
Looking at Marini’s black Honda, one gets the feeling that it is a sort of carbon paper from Ducati, also inspired by the RS-GP from Noale.
The windshield is more enveloping and rounded than usual: the intention is to better take care of the flows that hit the rider’s helmet, but the new features concern the fairing which is completely new. The wings are newly designed with two different configurations: the first more traditional that blows towards the step and the second (tested by Zarco) that extends towards the tail of the fairing giving the idea that the aerodynamic element becomes enormously longer.
Marini, on the other hand, has dedicated himself to the version most similar to the Ducati aerodynamic concept with the diffuser that takes up the known shapes of the Desmosedici and with the air conveyor that blows downwards on the sides of the radiator. The step has a large sidewalk and in the lateral trailing edge you can see a visible flow conveyor that clings to the upper part of the fairing with a horizontal flap.
Luca Marini, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Lorenza Dadderio
It is interesting to note how the Honda creation is truly a puzzle of easily replaceable, decomposable elements that allow for useful modifications to understand which is the best path to take, as if a development path had been found in the tunnel to be carried forward, but with still some doubts to be resolved.
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