Under-the-radar Honda stalwart rated as "the key"

MotoGP race winner Aleix Espargaro made an immediate impact at Honda’s test team by outpacing the factory race riders on his RC213V debut at last November’s Barcelona test.

The former Aprilia rider the took part in several private tests before his speed was publicly reconfirmed by being just 0.3s slower than Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) during the Sepang shakedown.

But Espargaro isn’t the only race rider turned HRC tester in 2025 with Takaaki Nakagami stepping down from LCR to join Espargaro and Stefan Bradl in developing the RCV.

“This year for sure I hope that the organisation with the test team will be better,” said Honda Castrol rider Luca Marini.

“That doesn't depend so much on the riders, but for sure Aleix and Taka will do a great job and Taka speaking Japanese [means he] can be very precise and explain very well the situation.

“But also the organisation around [the test team] must be super precise because it’s easy, even if you have two very good and fast riders, to lose the way.”

One of Nakagami’s priorities is to improve communication between the European race team and HRC engineers in Japan.

"Yeah, I think Taka will be the key of the test team,” said Marini. “Because with many Japanese engineers, it’s not so easy speaking in English, because the languages are super different.

“So with Taka working on this side, we can make the difference, I hope.”

Already making a difference is new HRC technical director Romano Albesiano, who has arrived with Espargaro and crew chief Antonio Jimenez from Aprilia.

“I think he's already made good things,” said Marini. “Not properly on designing something for the bike [yet] or inventing something, but on the organisation side.

“And he was smart this winter to do two things that were helpful for arriving here with the best package possible.”

The Italian declined to say what those two things were, but Honda finished the Buriram test with Marini’s team-mate Joan Mir in an impressive sixth place, having also delivered a fast Sprint simulation.

Marini was 14th for best lap, within one second of Marc Marquez (Ducati), but felt the amount of rubber on track by the end of testing masked some Honda issues such as rear grip.

“Overall, the pre-season was positive,” he said. “We understand very well which is the package that we need to use in the first races and we can be quite satisfied because we made a step forward compared to our performance here last year.

“But it's a little bit too early to say it loud because we have to check in normal GP [conditions] which is our position. “

The season-opening Thai Grand Prix takes place next weekend.