Honda Difficult to Be Competitive: New Parts in Portimao Haven’t Helped

RiderTua.com – Honda’s development work in MotoGP is experiencing difficulties. Like in Qatar, at the Portugal weekend race, there was not much to rely on from the four Honda riders Luca Marini, Joan Mir, Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco.

Mir, who was annoyed with Pramac Ducati rider Franco Morbidelli in Sunday’s race, finally finished P12. No Honda rider made further progress in either of the two races at the Algarve International Circuit in Portimao.

In the sprint, Mir finished in P14, while Nakagami and Marini were the last to cross the finish line in 17th and 18th. Zarco did not finish at all on Saturday due to a crash. In Sunday’s race, Nakagami and Zarco finished 14th and 15th, while Marini finished 17th, only behind Franco Morbidelli who fell early.

The weakness of the Honda RC213V, namely the lack of grip on the rear wheel, especially has a negative impact on the up and down and winding track in Portimao. The two LCR riders Zarco and Nakagami specifically explained this in detail.

Zarco: New swingarm doesn’t help much

Johann Zarco said, “It was a very difficult race. I didn’t expect to have to fight as hard as I could lap after lap,” admitted Zarco after running 25 laps of the race, Sunday.

According to Zarco, the new parts Honda brought in for the Portimao weekend didn’t help much. Among other things, a new swing arm was used.. “If previously we were 30 percent away from a good solution, then here we are maybe two to three percent less. But that means we are still 27 percent short.. That’s why we get a lot of late complaints this week. The new parts won’t have a big impact on the track.”

Zarco almost won points in 15th position not because of Honda’s performance. “I was lucky there were some incidents at the end, so at least I could score one point,” he said, alluding to the collision between Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia four laps from the end and the gearbox damage to Maverick Vinales that went in his favor.