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It was Luca Marini who took the honours as the best of the Honda riders at the end of the first of the last two days of pre-season testing at the Buriram track in Thailand (results here). With a time of 1'29.928, the rider from the Marche managed to place his RC213V in sixth position, ahead of LCR rider Johann Zarco by a handful of thousandths and the other factory Honda ridden by his teammate Joan Mir by just over a tenth. The best way in which to approach the first Grand Prix of the year, although Luca knows that things will not be so easy on race weekend.
"The balance of the day is positive. On this track we manage to be a little closer, but I think it depends on the characteristics of the track, which as it is short and with few corners allows for smaller gaps - he noted - Today went well, because I lapped stronger than Zarco and Mir, which is always the goal. We'll see how it goes tomorrow because we still have to make some adjustments on the bike, but today was a very different day from those in Sepang, because the test in Malaysia was much more focused on developing the bike and trying all the elements. So, we had only started to work on the set-up on the last day. Here, however, the day was completely dedicated to that and in fact I made a step forward in terms of riding and feeling on the bike. The goal was really to focus only on the setting to get ready for free practice and not have to touch anything anymore. However, keeping in mind that on race weekend there is much less grip, because today it was much easier to lap."
The setup for Round 1 is now defined.
"Yes exactly. We have this package now and then tomorrow we will focus on extracting the maximum and trying a couple more adjustments. I will also do a time attack in the morning and a simulation in the race time," added Marini, explaining the reasons why he did not try the new fairing: "Not being able to use it in the first race, we told ourselves that it did not make sense. We know the positives and negatives of that fairing and now we simply have to be able to use it."
Is it still too early to say that Honda is ahead of 2024? "No, we are definitely a little bit ahead. However, we will have to see where everyone else is and if they are also further ahead," the 27-year-old replied, "We still have to be positive and we know that more updates will have to come over the course of the season."
Among the new developments coming in the next few months, the Honda rider also hopes to find an update related to the engine. One of the weak points of the RC213V. As Mir pointed out in Malaysia, the Japanese manufacturer has managed to improve little over last year in terms of speed and still lags far behind Ducati.
"It's hard not to be aligned, since we are on the same bike," Luca remarked, commenting on his teammate's statements, "However, Ducati has always had a great engine and we have to see about getting the most out of the package we have. Having another engine development during the year is definitely a goal because that's not enough, especially when it comes to the race. Because maybe with new tires and a lap 'to the death' the gap might even improve, but then in the race you can't pass anyone, your tires and engine get hot, the bike runs less and it's even harder to pass someone. This is a very important issue, also because everyone has been able to make a good step forward. The Aprilia now goes very strong in the straights: today I saw Savadori was flying. So, we are a bit behind on this side and there is definitely work to be done."
Albesiano admitted that he aspires to put Honda in the Top 10 this season. A mission Marini also believes is possible, with a little more speed.
"Anything can happen in the race: if it rains and 12 crash you are already in the top 10. So, it would be nice to be consistently in the Top 10. The goal should be to be able to get into Q2 very often and smoothly and not in a tragic way," he pointed out. "Then when you start in the top 12 in the race, there are a lot more chances to be in the 10, because you can't get in the Top 10 as long as you start 18th. For me we really need to find a little more speed and with Albesiano and all the new engineers we can do it, although there is a lot of work to be done."
