“This is not Honda bike!” - Nakagami pinpoints 2022 MotoGP concept change: "After this we lose the way"

Takaaki Nakagami, who will switch to Honda test and wild-card duties next season, has identified the moment when he feels the factory’s MotoGP project began to lose touch with its rivals.

An LCR Honda rider since his 2018 premier-class debut, Nakagami is adamant the factory can return to its MotoGP glory days but warned a lot needs to change.

“HRC in the past had one of the best bikes, but now somehow we are missing [something],” he said. “I believe HRC will be back on top again, as soon as possible. But it's going to be difficult. It's not easy… many, many, many things to change.”

After dominating the end of the 500cc era, Honda went on to win ten MotoGP riders’ titles from 2002-2019 under the four-stroke rules.

But there have been just four race wins since Marc Marquez’s 2020 arm injuries, the most recent a shock victory for Alex Rins at COTA last year.

With Marquez switching to Gresini Ducati and Rins to Monster Yamaha, Honda has a best result so far this season of ninth in a Sprint and just 12th in a grand prix.

Asked to identify the moment the RC213V began to lose pace with its rivals, the Japanese replied:

“I feel 2022. Why? Because 2022 they changed completely the concept of the bike. After this, clearly I remember that when I jumped on this different concept it was like, ‘wow, this is not [the] Honda bike anymore!’

“Because in the past it was a really small [wheelbase] bike and its really strong point was the braking. But somehow, always the front [was] the limit.

"So they changed a lot of different concepts, trying to improve with more rear grip and then after this we lose the way. We couldn't find the right balance.

“Then plus the aero and [ride height] device and many things, a little bit more confusion and then we couldn't find any good balance for the bike. So yeah, the point that we started to lose it is 2022.”

Marquez didn't win a race for Honda after 2021. 

Nakagami was the next-best RCV rider during 2022 with three top-eight finishes until being injured in a collision with Marquez, on his Aragon return from further arm surgery.

The 32-year-old explained that while the rear grip emphasis sometimes paid off, they never found the right balance.

“The concept was to try to increase a lot of rear grip. So if you ask me which year had grip, it's the 2022 bike, because of this concept. But the balance was tricky. The front was always difficult to control," Nakagami said.

“So qualifying was always good because we had a lot of grip, once we put the new tyres we were always able to improve the lap time. But for the consistency was not easy. A big question mark.”

Grip and balance remain hot topics for the current Honda, and are sure to be on Nakagami’s plate in his new testing role.

“I will be kind of a test rider in Japan, and Europe as well. Couple of races as a wild-card,” Nakagami said. “This is really a big change, of course, but for the last couple of years I’m missing something … I have speed but for many reasons I cannot be where I want to be.

“I want to help speed up a bit more the development in Japan. There are a lot of things to improve, because at the same time I can explain [directly] to the Japanese engineers.

“At the moment, for example, we are in Europe and here in the paddock we don’t know what the HRC guys are testing in Japan. This I can improve a lot.

“It's about connecting [Japan] more with the paddock and the European test team. They need to understand what I will do and then also we need to share many things, so everyone is understanding each area. This is what HRC is missing now.

“So it’s something very exciting, my new chapter. I feel great. I’m happy also for Chantra. I will try to help him adjust because it's completely different, Moto2 and MotoGP. So I want to explain or help him with some things using my experience.”

Nakagami starts his final eight rounds as a full-time rider at Misano this weekend, as Honda’s top rider in the world championship standings, albeit only 18th.

Moto2 race winner Somkiat Chantra, taking over from Nakagami alongside Johann Zarco, will make his MotoGP debut at November's Valencia post-race test.