Takaaki Nakagami takes stock of a MotoGP season that is certainly still to be finished, but which will not remain in his fond memories yet. The fault is a bad path taken by Honda in the development of its RC213V. The said journey had a priori been marked by a Stefan Bradl of whom the greatest praise was said. The German even hit the headlines by taking advantage of his duties as Marc Marquez's replacement throughout the last campaign to do tests. But obviously the direction was not the right one…
All that for that... Seeing the first manufacturer go to such lengths for so many months only to end up in an impasse leaves one wondering while, at the same time, Ducati traces its furrow with legitimate assurance, Suzuki leverages its technical capital and Aprilia reaps the fruits of his efforts. The case of KTM will be analyzed while Yamaha owes its happiness only to its pilot alone fabio quartararo. Otherwise, we wouldn't be happier in Iwata than in Tokyo...
But it is so with Honda and to understand the slump, Nakagami confesses: “ from the start of the championship, the goal was to fight for the title, but unfortunately during the winter tests we had a lot of problems and falls » said the Japanese, even adding on motogp.com : " last year it was easier, I had more confidence in the bike and I was ready to be in the top 5. This year was not the best and you have to understand where the limit is ».
Nakagami recognizes that without Marc Marquez everything is lost
Darkness had just enveloped the clan Honda, and then the divine light of Marc Marquez gushed: “ after Jerez, everything went better » said the LCR pilot. “ Step by step we pushed and straightened out a difficult situation, but for that we must have fallen a lot. We had to look for confidence and change bikes, getting lost ».
He specifies that with the exception of Marc Marquez who is 7th in the championship with 117 points and two victories, the Japanese does better than all the other Honda drivers, starting with Pol Espargaro with whom he is tied on points in the ranking, i.e. 70. The future, at least in the words of Nakagami, is positive.
The return of Marc Marquez was useful to everyone, both as a stimulus for the engineers and in terms of driver feedback: “ the bike, since Marc's return, has improved and is improving more and more compared to the start of the world championship » Taka finishes. “ We made big changes compared to the other riders and that gives us a good feeling with the new bike. I'm optimistic about the new bike, we're on the right track ».
It will be recalled that 2022 is an expected deadline for Honda which promises a revolution on the engine side. Nakagami's teammate, Alex Marquez also expressed his optimism for the future after having seen up close what was being prepared…
