Honda MotoGP bike “better than last year” - but there's a "but"...

Honda’s recent MotoGP slump has seen it fall to the bottom of the manufacturer pile, but Honda HRC Castrol boss Alberto Puig is sure that progress is being made.

Both riders of the factory Honda team, Joan Mir and Luca Marini, were positive about improvements that were made over the winter, with both noting that the 2025 RC213V is better on corner entry than its predecessor in the first tests of the season at Sepang last week (even if Marini felt that Honda had stayed stagnant over the winter relative to the fastest bikes in the championship).

This was supported by Alberto Puig Puig, who affirmed that the RC213V has made a step forward this year compared to 2024 when speaking to MotoGP.com.

“The base is better than last year,” he said.

“We improved in some areas that were difficult for us in the past, but still we need to work on several things that are really important and that riders are requesting, and we know the things.

“It will not be easy, the beginning of the season, this is for sure.

“But in Japan they did a big effort in bringing everything they did, and also we recruited a lot of people that are helping us.”

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The standout figure among Honda’s 2025 recruits is of course Romano Albesiano, who previously led Aprilia’s RS-GP project.

For the moment, the Italian is still in the learning phase of his time with Honda, Puig insisted.

“Regarding [Romano] Albesiano, we are happy that he joined,” he said.

“Of course, it’s a beginning for him, and the guy needs time to get used to the system in Honda which is completely different, probably, from the Italian way of working.

“Finally, Honda is not an individual, it’s a team – this is where we want to find the strength. “The motivation and the challenge, the target is there – his only one is to bring back Honda to the top positions.”