Austin MotoGP: Technical news…

We had mentioned it without really believing in it, the attitude seemed so unflattering... But yes, Honda showed up in Austin with an aerodynamic appendage fixed under the swinging arm of the RC 213 V Marc Márquez!

Technically, it looks a lot like the one that caused controversy by being attached to the Ducati GP19, except that it is smaller in size, and a monoplane instead of a triplane.

Marc Márquez only used it during one run in FP2 and did not achieve his best time with it.

Marc Márquez approached the subject with irony: “it was interesting to try this new thing in order to evaluate it while having more information on it. I would say that this spoon serves to stiffen the swingarm (laughs). Have I checked the rear tire temperature? No, but it doesn't seem very different. From what we have seen, this appendage generates aerodynamic downforce when braking, although we need to look at this in more detail. It takes time for everything to be clear.”

At Yamaha, Valentino Rossi said : " This is something that could help us because it serves to cool the tire. This would be useful during the race. I'm lobbying Yamaha to build something like this, but don't ask me when it will happen. We already have such a spoiler, but only for rain. Hopefully I can try something like this soon, definitely this year. We have to be on the alert, because in recent years we started the season well, but then Honda and Ducati did better than us. However, we cannot expect any miracles from this “device”. It's just a little thing. Still, it can bring a little help.”

At Ducati, we continue to use this “tire cooler” in conjunction with the air ducts mounted around the front wheel, which has made it possible to better detail the latter…

Finally, at Aprilia, which apparently also has a swingarm spoiler in the boxes, we simply smeared the air intakes of the RS-GP with white grease to capture as many impurities as possible before the airbox.