Montmeló.- The Spaniard arrived at the HRC workshop this winter with the intention of continuing to grow, after a four-year stage at KTM, in which he championed the tremendous progression of the orange motorcycle company in its landing in MotoGP.
However, Espargaró has not found Honda at its best, dismayed as the brand of the golden wing has been by the loss of Marc Márquez, and without a clear reference that would mark the development of a prototype that has lost ground compared to those of the competition.
To this lack of leadership we must add a series of circumstances that have further complicated Espargaró’s adaptation. With a preseason limited to a single circuit (Qatar), the youngest of the brothers from Granollers (Barcelona) has also had to adapt to a completely different work methodology than the one that prevailed at KTM . The needs of the manufacturer from Mattighofen, with much more room for improvement than the Japanese, advised a much more collaborative policy among the different pilots (four) available.
At Honda , the most powerful manufacturer in the World Championship, the philosophy is different, and it is the fastest rider who sets the line to follow. Communication, furthermore, is not conspicuous by its abundance in any of the Japanese constructors and especially in the case of the Tokyo one, which works rather in silence.
Regardless of the percentage of responsibility that corresponds to him in specific races, this accumulation of factors helps explain why Polyccio is in 12th position in the general table, that he is the third of the four Honda members who compete and that, with 41 points , he has 32 fewer than at this point last season (he had 73). In 2020 he had already accumulated two podiums, while his best result in the nine events that have elapsed is the eighth place he achieved in Qatar, his debut in HRC, and in Le Mans.
The diagnosis of all the Honda riders coincides in pointing out the lack of rear-wheel drive as the main handicap of the RC213V , a lack that, according to the Catalan, requires a considerable effort on the part of the brand’s technical division. It will be in Austria, at the beginning of August, when it will be verified if this reaction, translated into new pieces, has the expected effect.
“Confidentiality and the Japanese go hand in hand, but obviously there is a five-week break, it has never been so long and that means that a lot of work is being done in Japan and that we will have parts. What pieces? How will we have them? When? We don’t know that”, Espargaró told Motorsport.com this Tuesday, after finishing the test he carried out in Montmeló with his new CBR.
For the #44 , the key to starting to recover lost ground is not only through a new chassis, which was already put to the test during the last Grand Prix (Assen), but also through a combined action that attacks different points of the bike.
“We expect a lot of new things, not just a chassis. I think the bike needs quite a few changes to make it work and adapt to the rear tyre. It may not be as simple as simply mounting a chassis that works”, warned the Moto2 world champion (2013).
