Falling under Group D established by the concession system introduced by MotoGP in 2024, Honda and Yamaha were able to benefit from several concessions in the season that ended last month in Barcelona. Despite having unlimited testing, two aerodynamic upgrades, six wild cards and the ability to continue engine development throughout the year, the Tokyo-based manufacturer failed to make any significant strides. It ended up once again occupying fifth and last place in the Constructors' standings, 49 points behind its Yamaha rivals, third with two fewer bikes on the grid, and a full 647 lengths behind champions Ducati.
Asked by our Motorsport.com colleagues about the contribution made by the concessions, Joan Mir gave a no-nonsense answer when asked what position in the standings the Japanese manufacturer would occupy if it had not been able to enjoy such advantages: "This year probably in the same place we are. I hope this helps us for the next one, but in the short term we didn't get any advantage. We see it in the results."
Embittered by the fact that he did not try a new bike in the first test with a view to 2025, but only some previously tested elements, the Majorcan was keen to reiterate once again the need to continue developing the RC213-V.
"We have to find a way to get good pieces that help us to be faster. At the moment we couldn't get it," underlined Joan, who appeared very skeptical that being able to do more testing throughout the year is actually an advantage for the factory riders. "The thing that the factory riders are able to test more, I don't think that is an advantage, because if the bike is better I would be faster. That's why we have a test team," he explained, "If we go to test something and we stay all day between one week and another one, we don't rest psychologically. We go one test, race, one test, race... Sometimes it's worse, not better."
With this in mind, the 2020 MotoGP world champion hopes that Honda will soon reap some benefits from beefing up its test team, joining Stefan Bradl with two former riders Aleix Espargaró and Takaaki Nakagami.
"The test team was not enough. We had just one test rider and honestly we could improve a lot of the infrastructure of the test team. They are doing it and I think this for the next year will be very good," Mir noted, "The test team now has been strengthened and we have to make it work to have the right things."