The Repsol Honda Factory team has not won a race since Marc Márquez celebrated his 59th MotoGP victory at Misano in October 2021. The test driver Stefan Bradl has tried a large number of chassis updates in recent years, many new aerodynamic versions and several new electronic setups. But the results have not improved.
The current positions in the HRC drivers’ world championship (18th Joan Mir, 19th Johann Zarco and 21st Nakagami) speak for themselves. Luca Marini has yet to score a single point in 14 races for the famous Repsol Honda team. For Valentino Rossi’s Mooney VR46 Ducati team, the young Italian achieved four podiums and 8th place overall in the championship standings.
The Honda MotoGP test rider Stefan Bradl, who will marry his long-time girlfriend Jana on August 9thwill check some technical updates in Valencia by the end of June and has obtained four more wild cards (after Jerez and Barcelona) for Sachsenring, Spielberg, Misano and Valencia.
HRC has signed Aleix Espargaró (who contested the MotoGP World Championship for Aprilia Racing for eight years) as a test driver for 2025. Honda wants split the workload between Aleix and Stefan Bradl (34), Moto2 world champion in 2011, who is in his seventh year as a Honda test rider and will remain for another two years.
Stefan Bradl explained two years ago that the Honda RC213V is unable to make the most of the potential of the new soft Michelin tire. “While the competition uses 100% of the rear grip of the Michelins, we can only use 80%. For this reason on Friday in qualifying we suffer in fast single laps, which leads to mediocre positions on the grid and jeopardizes our chances in competition”he said in 2022.
But in 2022 Marc Márquez missed ten Grands Prix due to the fourth operation on his right arm and Honda finished in sixth and final place in the constructors’ championship. Last year they rose to fifth place, but only because Suzuki withdrew.
Despite the new concessions, Honda has not made any progress for 2024. Stefan Bradl gives the reasons, point by point.
Marc Márquez has a very particular riding style. But no other rider could feel comfortable with the bike set-up he preferred. Now Marc has left HRC but the problems remain. Can you describe the weak points of the RC213V?
“Due to the winglets it has become even more difficult to find the right balance of the bikes that allows us to make the most of the tires – said Stefan Bradl – Our bike has lost its strengths in this area. Our biggest weakness is the lack of rear traction. This leaves us with only one possibility: we have to make up time by overloading the front. But because of all the wings you don’t feel the front tire like in past years, when aerodynamics didn’t play such an important role in MotoGP. Because of the turbulence and all the dirty air created by the riders in front of you, you lose more and more feeling for the front. Motorcycles dictate the speed at which you can ride thanks to new aerodynamic bodies and the devices have much more influence than before. For this reason it has become increasingly difficult for a driver to make a difference.”
Repsol Honda hasn’t won a race since Misano in October 2021. And so far there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Even top riders such as Jorge Lorenzo, Pol Espargaró, Joan Mir and Johann Zarco failed to achieve decent results. The Frenchman raced for Yamaha, KTM and Ducati. Can Zarco now help improve the RC213V?
“All contracted drivers have a role in development. LCR is also now more involved in finding better solutions. All four Honda GP riders receive the same treatment when it comes to expressing their opinions. The engineers listen to all four. HRC is trying to provide all four riders with the same material and the latest technical updates. But HRC gives some indications to each driver because it wants to accelerate the process of improving results. The work is divided between the two teams and the four drivers. The collaboration between the two teams has improved. But we drivers can only give certain feedback and explain where we find the weak points. Zarco and Nakagami can provide information to the Japanese who, at the end of the day, have the task of drawing the right conclusions and finding solutions that allow us to go faster on the track.”
After 2019 Honda found itself in difficulty because Ducati, Aprilia and then KTM created much better aerodynamics and they understood early on how important the various devices are. It took a while for Honda to admit that the RC213V had lost most of its strengths, because Marc Márquez still achieved a podium in 2023 and started from pole in Portugal last year. But Honda only copied the aerodynamics of the winning brands.
“Each manufacturer is trying different aerodynamic solutions. Different ones are needed for different circuits.”
Do you expect Honda to strive for top ten results in qualifying and races later in the 2024 season? Because they need to attract the best drivers again in the long run.
“Yes, we need to improve our material. It’s not good enough at the moment. Our situation can be compared to that of Mercedes in Formula One. If the vehicle is not competitive, you cannot have the best driver on the market. I imagine there were a few top drivers lined up at Red Bull Racing before re-signing Perez. At Mercedes, however, they are unable to have the champions they would like to hire after Hamilton’s decision to leave. The positive side is that Honda has a decent budget for MotoGP, which is important if we want to catch up with Ducati and the others in the near future. It seems clear to me that Honda wants to see better results. Because the most successful manufacturer in GP history needs a new success story in the near future. Our tragedy has lasted for three years now. In 2027 we will have new technical regulations, 850 cc instead of 1000 cc and 100% bio fuel. But I am convinced that Honda wants to get close to the top even with the current rules, and then launch another great attack in 2027. This is my personal opinion. The Japanese are very calm, very patient human beings. But they are also proud and therefore a company like Honda always has the intention of setting something big in motion.”
HERE IS THE FIRST PART OF THE INTERVIEW
