“The bike we tested in Misano is very different”

2024-09-11 15:47:25

Johann Zarco left the last official test held in Misano with some hope, or at least with a more positive feeling than Joan Mir about the new features that Honda debuted during the long-awaited test day in Italy. The French driver finished well off the fastest times, in a modest position of 18th and 1.3 seconds off the best time set by Pecco Bagnaiaa result that more or less follows the trend of the Honda riders this season, with all of them having problems even being able to enter the points zone every weekend.

Despite racing for the Castrol Honda LCR Team, Zarco had the same material available to him as the official Repsol team drivers.and although the one from Cannes was cautious in his statements, he seemed to be more animated than his factory colleague Joan Mir, which was a little critical of the lack of news and progress that Honda brought to the Misano test.

Summing up his day, the Frenchman said that “We have tried three important things that have worked wellbut above all it seemed to me that something has moved and that we are no longer restless as before, although it is still hard to tell from the results against the stopwatch”.

Zarco hopes that Honda will be able to fine-tune all the parts tested at Misano as soon as possible, and thus put them on stage at the next Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix to be held on the track this same in a little over a week: “We’ll see if we have all the pieces ready for the second round in Misano. I don’t know what the program is, but it was good to accumulate so many laps. We hope this can bring good results in the Asian races.because at the moment everyone is very fast and it is difficult to do jobs.

The Frenchman, who was a little vague in his statements about how his Honda improved during the last test, also gave some details about the new aerodynamics with greater effect on the ground that Honda debuted in this test, a fairing that Zarco is comfortable with with him despite not being ready for the motorcycle. problems: “It is particularly significant in certain areas of the curves and in a certain sectorbut it’s not where we miss the most at the moment, also because I don’t think our problem comes from the fair. That’s why we’ve made some changes to the chassis to improve acceleration.”

Unlike Joan Mir, Zarco claims to be calm after checking all the work done by Honda in recent months, and he is confident that more improvements will soon come that will help them reduce the huge gap that separates them from European manufacturers today.

“From Honda 2023 to 2024 the change was already terrible, Even the bike we tested here is a very different RC213V“, emphasized the LCR Team driver. “Without the rear wings and with the new aerodynamics, I noticed an improvement in entry, specifically after 11. When you feel you have more stability you start to smile inside the helmet.”

Also read: Marc Márquez: “The sign of Bagnaia with the whistles on the podium says a lot about him”

Despite this encouraging progress, Zarco regretted that both he and his HRC colleagues “we continue to suffer in the area of ​​accelerationand not only because of the grip, but because of the way we have to push”ditch number #5.