Alberto Puig cannot hide it: the first part of the 2024 MotoGP season was particularly difficult for Honda. Despite introducing a new dealership system this year designed to help struggling manufacturers, Honda has failed to capitalize on these benefits. This system allows Honda and Yamaha to freely develop their engines, carry out private tests without restrictions and experiment with more advanced aerodynamic solutions than their competitors. However, these benefits have not yet translated into improved performance on the track.
After the first nine Grands Prix of the season, Honda only accumulated 24 points in the World Manufacturers' Championship, a performance well below the 315 points from Ducati, who dominates the championship with undisputed authority. The two Honda teams, Honda LCR (10th with 22 points) and the Repsol Honda Team (11th with 14 points), occupy the last positions in the World Team Championship. Joan mir, the best driver in Honda, is at the 18e place in the driver rankings with only 13 points acquired in the 18 races, including the sprints and the main races on Sunday.
Alberto puig, team manager of Repsol Honda Team, admitted that the situation is difficult: “ It’s not easy to progress this year. We are not where we wanted to be. The whole factory is trying to get there, but we are still very far from our usual positions. » He added that the team is fighting and trying many solutions, but the lap times show that they are still far from the desired performance. “ We try to use concessions and do a lot of testing, but we still need to make great progress »
Alberto Puig: “ we will bring new parts with the hope that they will work, but we have no guarantee that they will be effective »
The main problem seems to lie with the RC213V, a bike that has not allowed its riders to be competitive. Puig specified: " we need to improve the bike. We know what we're missingMore we haven't found a solution yet to resolve these problems. We clearly understand our main challenges, but we are not yet 100% sure how to solve them »
While at the beginning of the year, Puig hoped that the summer break would allow his pilots to aspire to better results, he now seems less confident about the effectiveness of the new equipment which will arrive from Japan in August: “ for the second half of the year we will bringing in new parts with the hope that they will work, but we have no guarantee that they will be effective. At the start of the year, we planned to test bigger things for the second half of the season. Hopefully we can take that step and improve, but we'll have to see »
Alberto puig concludes on Todocircuito expressing a certain resignation: “ we just have to have confidence that the parts developed by our engineers in recent weeks will mark a turning point. Otherwise we'll have to go home. We don't sleep, we try. Another story is knowing whether what we are trying is working or not »
The second half of the season will be crucial for Honda, who must hope that future technical innovations will make it possible to redress the balance and regain the performance that has made the Japanese brand famous.
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