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MotoGP, Puig: "Romano Albesiano will start working with Honda-HRC on January 2"

"With the concessions there was no point in bringing a completely new bike to Barcelona, but three important things to try that we had already evaluated throughout the year. Happy with Aleix Espargarò, he is fast and precise in his directions."

MotoGP: Puig:

The opinions of the Honda riders appeared to be rather discordant at the end of Tuesday's MotoGP testing in Barcelona. While on the one hand Luca Marini seemed quite satisfied with the work done by the Tokyo-based manufacturer and the amount of things to try in Catalunya, diametrically opposed was the reaction of Joan Mir on the other side of the box. In fact, the Majorcan rider was very disappointed and bitter that he had nothing to try that had not been previously evaluated.

Therefore, it was down to Team Manager Alberto Puig, who spoke to the microphones of DAZN Spain to explain the approach taken by Honda in Barcelona, and clarify the issue.

"We didn't have a completely new bike for this test, but three important things to try. We had already tried them during the year and here we brought an optimized version," he explained, "We are working on different aspects of the bike, such as stability, braking and vibration. It is not easy to solve this problem, because it is not the typical chattering, but vibrations that affect the rider a lot. We are spending a lot of time on this aspect, because it is the one we are most concerned about right now."

Enjoying the concessions has allowed Honda to do a lot of private testing and try different material throughout the year. And this was precisely one of the reasons why the Japanese manufacturer did not show up at the first winter test with a new bike.

"The 2025 prototype is built when you have something that is more or less good. Because we did a lot of testing during the year and tried a lot of things, it didn't make sense to bring it here," Puig said. "In the past we waited all season to bring a new bike here, but now that we have the concessions, it didn't make sense to bring a 'black' bike when we've had it all year."

The test in Barcelona may not have been the occasion to see a new version of the RC213V at work, but it was still the setting for another important debut, Aleix Espargaró's as HRC test rider.

"Aleix is fast and we are very happy with the way he expressed his opinion about the bike, in a very clear and direct way. I liked the strength with which he spoke about the bike, in a very unbiased way. He gave us some very interesting information," commented the team manager, who concluded by revealing the date when Romano Albesiano will start as Honda technical director: "He will start working on January 2, since the 1st is a public holiday."

 

Translated by Julian Thomas

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