Honda keeps hope alive with new test team

The 2024 season of MotoGP was not the easiest for Japanese manufacturers. Like Yamaha, Honda suffered from its performance deficit compared to Ducati, KTM and Aprilia, and spent most of its season at the back of the grid.

Improvements could however be observed in the second half of the season. After the first race held at Misano, most of the Honda riders started to play for points fairly.

Asked to take stock of the brand's official team at the end of the season, the team manager of the team insists that Honda is not losing hope. He sees the manufacturer making big progress from 2025.

"It has not been easy, clearly. The results are not what we wanted, recalls Alberto Puig. But hey, it was a year where At the beginning of the season, we tried a lot of things, to find a lot of solutions. During the second part of the year, we were able to have more or less ideas of what worked or not.

We've made progress. Not as much as we expected, but we've made progress. We're constantly looking for what we can do to improve next year's machine. These are not the results we expected, but let's say that the engineers are understanding better and better how to do it, where to go, how to go about it. It will take time to see what we have in the pipeline come to fruition."

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Choice drivers at Honda

To do this, he trusts above all his drivers, Joan Mir and Luca Marini, with whom he says he is fully satisfied. The opportunity to support the Spaniard, who has often been critical of the colours he defends.

“The only thing we haven’t lost is our will to get back into the game. Our will to continue, even if we are far behind, which is a fact. Joan, he is already world champion in MotoGP. So the situation is not easy for him. He has had crashes, but it’s normal, he tries. When you are world champion, you push, you want results. We hope he can keep his motivation, even in these difficult times.

He analyzes a lot, and he has no limits in the job. He could work 24 hours a day, he really likes it. He always tries to give his information. From a work point of view, it's started. From a human point of view, he's a very good guy. He's always polite and very respectful, we're very happy."

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A reinforced Test team

But Puig is also counting heavily on the new test team that Honda has built this year. Made up of Aleix Espargaro, from the Aprilia factory team, Takaaki Nakagami, who was in the brand's satellite team last year, and Stefan Bradl, already in place in this department of HRC.

“Aleix, as you can see, he is still very fast, and his experience will help us. Taka, he is also a fast rider, at the same level as Aleix. Then we have Stefan, he is maybe not as fast as these two guys, but he knows the team, the bike very well, and he will do a job that will help Aleix and Taka. I think the cooperation will be great between them, in this new Test team. For the rest, we will see.” concludes Alberto Puig.

In practice, Honda will have its work cut out for it to catch up with the European factories, something it will not realistically be able to do in a single year. The test team will nevertheless allow the brand's regular riders to rest more. They were chaining together the numerous private tests planned by Honda between the MotoGP Grands Prix they were competing in.