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Eighteenth at the end of the morning's testing at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, Joan Mir said he was quite satisfied with what he tested. The Honda rider focused as expected on the engine, one of the weak points of the RC213V. "The character is similar to the old specification," he said after the test. "They have improved all areas a bit, but none stands out more than the others. It's more linear now, so it's easier to control, and powerful although this is not the best track in which to evaluate the top speed, but overall a step forward has been made. Have I tried any components that might affect grip? No, maybe someone else did."
The wind has characterized the session so far. "In these cases you have to be careful when testing aerodynamics. At Turn 7 I went wonderfully well just because of the gusts, while at Turn 11 I struggled more. Let's say that in these conditions it is also complicated in terms of set-up. In the afternoon it might even get worse, and that doesn't help, but for me working on the engine and electronics is fine. Should it become untenable making it pointless to lap we will stop earlier," he admitted.
On the subject of the suspension, however, he explained, "We have tried a couple of things, but they are not the key to our main problem, which is vibration, as they can only partially hide it. The important thing is to understand the reason why sometimes it is more noticeable than in others and in the meantime mitigate the discomfort in the short term. At present we suffer most when temperatures are high. Do we also suffer when there is little grip? Not exactly, because usually test riders don't complain about it. As for us official riders, we go into crisis when the tire drops and this is strange since at that stage the grip decreases."
Returning to the engine of his Honda the Spaniard commented, "Any progress is welcome, but we have to be sure of the changes because at the moment we can fight and the risk is that to make a step forward we go one step backwards. All in all, I am happy. Although we still lack a bit to get to the level of the Ducati, some improvements have been seen. Testing on a track with a longer straight will be crucial to really understand its potential. Did I try to ride in the slipstream? No, because I focused as well on engine braking, electronics and some geometry things that didn't convince me, however, as well as on the setup, and honestly with the base I had found I liked the bike better."
The 2020 MotoGP champion then revealed a special request Honda makes of its riders. "When they have to have something verified they want your feedback first, so you are not influenced by anything. I don't know if my opinions coincided with Espargaro's after the race, but I think so. Will I use the new engine at Le Mans? I really don't know what to answer, maybe Nakagami will have it, he'll do a wild card."
Seventeenth in the morning Luca Marini went for a different program than his teammate. "We split the parts to test, so I couldn't devote myself to the engine. From the comments I've heard though, it's slightly better and I'm happy with it. The new swingarm? If you've seen it, good, but I can't go into details. I noticed a step forward here too, but it's too early to make a judgment because of the great grip typical when testing on Mondays and the wind. However, we are making comparisons so that the engineers can have all the data to analyze calmly, in addition to my feelings, so that we can identify the development path. In general what I had requested led to progress. The aerodynamics? I haven't tried it yet and I haven't heard any opinions about it," said the Marche rider.
