Honda to try new MotoGP engine during ‘important’ Catalunya test?

After seeing the RC213V go from front to back in the space of a year at COTA, the four Honda MotoGP riders seemed to agree that something major wasn’t working on the radically revised 2024 machine.

Honda won last year’s Austin round with former LCR rider Alex Rins. But a year later the sole Honda ‘survivor’, Luca Marini, crossed the line in last place in both the Sprint (17th) and Grand Prix (16th).

Repsol team-mate Joan Mir and LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami crashed out in both races, while Johann Zarco fell on Saturday before being forced to retire with an early technical problem on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the RCVs were also bottom of the timesheets for much of practice and qualifying.

“We see that we are very, very far,” Mir said after the Sprint. “This is a track that was positive for this bike in the past and now we don't have any positive.

“Last year it was a bike that was stopping and with brakes you were able to turn. Then we [would start to] ask too much of this good part, and then start the crashes.

“But now you can’t make the difference even on that [braking] part. So we are a bit lost because we don't have an advantage in any area, at the moment.

“The good thing is that we have concessions. We have to take a completely different line in terms of development.”

Indeed, Honda, like Yamaha, can now change its engine design during the season as part of the concession rules.

“[We must] try to bring everything new. Not only the engine,” explained Marini. “We’re struggling everywhere. We need to understand why everybody’s improved so much compared to last year.

“We’re missing something because the [2024] bike is very different. But not in a good way [here]. We lost the strongest point of last year’s bike and gained something [by reducing] the weak point compared to last year. But we gained not enough.”

After Sunday’s race - when he had quipped “Luca is a survivor!” - Mir confirmed that Honda has a revised engine in the pipeline “for this season.”

Exactly when that new engine will debut is not clear.

However, Mir labelled today’s (Friday’s) private test session at Montmelo, where he will ride alongside Marini and HRC test rider Stefan Bradl, as “very important”.

“We have a test in Montmelo that will be very, very important and then in Jerez we have another [test]. There we will understand if we made a step or not,” Mir said.

A downbeat Nakagami warned that multiple areas of weakness mean there is unlikely to be one quick-fix solution to the COTA woes.

“At the moment, I'm disappointed about the performance of everything,” said the Japanese. “The bike, we are slower than last year, this is absolutely impossible to understand.

“I cannot say where this low potential comes from. Maybe from the engine, and one [new] engine solves the problem and everything. I hope so!

“But at the moment I don't feel this, because only [changing] the engine cannot solve the balance, and the front feeling, or rear grip... There's too many problems at the moment.”

Team-mate Zarco put on a brave face.

“I'm still positive, we don't need to be pessimistic because we knew that it's going to be difficult with this really new project,” said the Frenchman, who has arrived as a race winner from Pramac Ducati.

“Honda changed so many things and it's easy to say we need time, but this is it. Because on the races where Honda was performing well [before], at the moment, we did worst.

“When we compare to the other bike, we clearly see that something is missing. I cannot go into the technical explanation because it's not my work [but] I tried to give my best and I did this weekend.

“There are no secrets on the technical side, just things to understand and we have the capacity of the people to understand it.

“But maybe we need another way to see things...”

Yamaha is also on track at Montmelo ahead of next weekend’s Spanish MotoGP, albeit only with factory test rider Cal Crutchlow.