Joan Mir's words after the American Grand Prix left no room for doubt. The 2020 world champion with Suzuki and in his second season with the factory Honda team warned in Austin that so far “nothing has worked” and that if this continues “drastic measures will have to be taken”.
Mir did not finish the American race after suffering another crash and was far from satisfied at the end of the day, leaving an ultimatum ahead of next Monday's official test.
“If not even what we bring to Jerez works, we will have to make a drastic decision and completely change direction. We must not waste any more time. The tests done so far are of little use,” he warned the engineers in Tokyo.
Luca Marini, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Understandable words for a rider who has been suffering for more than a year with an RC213V that isn't improving, but which have created some concern, especially among the new members of the Japanese brand, such as the Frenchman Johann Zarco and the Italian Luca Marini who, unlike Mir, whose contract expires at the end of the season, have signed another one.
“I still have confidence,” Zarco said after Austin. “We shouldn't be pessimistic, because we knew it would be difficult with this completely new project. Honda has changed a lot of things.”
“I think there are no secrets from a technical point of view, but only things to understand, and we have the ability of people to understand them. As long as I can give this feedback, because this is my quality as a rider, we will continue to move forward”, said the French LCR driver.
Marini asks to continue rowing forward
Italian rider Luca Marini, who left the comfort of brother Valentino Rossi's team with a competitive Ducati to take on the challenge of contributing to Honda's development, has joined the more optimistic trend ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix .
Luca Marini, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“It's another weekend to continue working with the team and aim for further improvements,” explained the Italian.
Even though Honda is in the midst of a serious crisis and the depths into which it is sinking are ever deeper, Marini is determined not to lower his guard.
“This is not the time to stop working, we need to continue to gather information and not only try to improve our current package, but also work on developments for the future,” he says.
“Jerez is a good circuit for this type of work, the team with test riders has done a lot of testing here and will be with us this weekend, so it will be interesting to see what we can learn”, referring to the wildcard activated by Honda for test rider Stefan Bradl , who will take part in the Spanish GP with the colors of Honda Japan.
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