Honda, already in difficulty for more than two years, experienced the height of the debacle during the German Grand Prix at the Saschenring, where none of the Tokyo productions scored a single point, a first in 40 years!
This straw, which follows a long series of bad results, undoubtedly did more than break the camel's back, it was a real electric shock which has already had several repercussions.
From HRC Senior President Shinya Wakabayashi's visit to Silverstone to the unconfirmed rumor ofouster of technical director Takeo Yokoyama at the end of the season, going through the recent statements from Marc Márquez regarding the Europeanization of the Repsol Honda team, there is an obvious questioning by the Japanese in the face of the current domination of European technicians.
At Yamaha, we focused on Europe to develop the engine. At Honda, the site Speedweek. com informs us that swingarms made of aluminum by Kalex will be used during the test on Tuesday and Wednesday.
This is not the first time that the Japanese have called on a European company to provide them with a particular technology, and we obviously think for example of Öhlins and Brembo, but also of the DelWest factory based in Switzerland which manufactures, among other things, all pneumatic valve return systems for all MotoGP except Ducati.
But until now, Honda produced its own swingarms, mainly made of aluminum until recently. Seeing the firm with the golden wing even try relatively simple parts in the hope of finding a solution to their problems is quite unusual, especially since the Ducati, the Aprilia and even sometimes the Yamaha who are fighting for the world title, have carbon swingarms.
