The struggles to achieve competitive performance are currently affecting all Honda riders. And not even the specification of the bike tested in Jerez brings more encouraging indications.
LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami said the problems persisted despite the many differences in the RC213V he tested in Jerez on Monday:
– I had the opportunity to do it a few times and, unfortunately, I did not have positive feelings. The main problem remained, although it looked like a different bike – aero, chassis, everything is different. But on the track the feeling is the same, the rear grip is still missing, it spins. It’s the same feeling, so the lap time doesn’t happen. We tried a couple of things, we tried small things, small adjustments, but the problem is too big.
For the Japanese driver, the biggest difficulty lies in the fast corners: “In high-speed corners, the feeling is really bad. This is my strongest point, but somehow this year was much slower than last year, which is only in the high-speed corners. In the slow and braking corners I improve a lot on the data, but unfortunately I still lose time in the high speed courses. I can’t carry the speed, the lap is really difficult. We tried a different idea and the feeling was that I was fast in the fast corners. But I don’t know about the future; if we keep this idea or try the 2024 spec and try to put the new idea with this spec. I don’t know, let’s see what HRC decides for the future‘.
Nakagami also said, “On Friday I said that they are really struggling in the high speed courses, but they had no idea during the weekend. On Monday’s test, we tried a couple of things, we found something, but we don’t know which way HRC wants to go for the future.‘.
