Honda factory riders wrap up 2024 with Jerez private test
HRC have been in action at Jerez
The factory Honda MotoGP team have wrapped up its year with a final private test at Jerez.
The 2024 season was Honda’s worst in the modern era as it failed to breach the top five in a grand prix and notched its third winless campaign in five years.
Honda took up the final place in the constructors’ standings with just 75 points, 49 shy of Japanese rival Yamaha and 647 away from Ducati.
HRC’s best result of the year was an eighth from LCR’s Johann Zarco at the Malaysian GP, marking its only top eight finish of the year on a Sunday, while the Frenchman was also eighth in the Indonesian GP sprint.
Zarco was the highest placed Honda rider in the standings in 17th, with Takaaki Nakagami 19th, Joan Mir 21st and Luca Marini last of the full-time grid in 22nd.
Honda has been busy across 2024 with numerous in-season private tests, a perk of its status as a concession manufacturer.
But progress was slow, with the most significant step coming after the San Marino GP with the introduction of a new aero package that improved turning.
At the Barcelona test following the final round of 2024, feedback from Honda’s stable was mixed on what it brought.
Mir was unhappy with the fact that nothing he tested was new, though team-mate Marini countered this.
Zarco said the 2025 chassis he tried wasn’t a positive step but didn’t feel the need to be “stressed” by this.
Marini noted in Barcelona that Honda would have new and more interesting things to try in a private test at Jerez.
On Tuesday, Marini and HRC test rider Aleix Espargaro took to the Jerez circuit, while Mir and Zarco took over on Wednesday.
Honda’s running coincided with World Superbike testing taking place at the same venue.
Espargaro joins the Honda project as test rider following retirement from full-time racing at the end of the 2024 season.
He will work alongside Honda’s former technical director Ken Kawauchi, who was moved to the test team this year, while ex-Aprilia man Romano Albesiano takes his place in the factory race team.
