It is with mixed feelings that Takaaki Nakagami left Losail in the last MotoGP tests, as he saw again signs of improvement on his Honda RC213V but yet again, at the same time, acknowledged that compared to the competition he is… still far.
When looking at how the tests went the LCR Honda rider said there was clearly signs of evolutions but the problem is that the other brands also did improve quite a lot, leaving Honda somewhat in the same position:
– Honestly, if I don’t look at the position we ended I am quite happy because we made a step forward. On the second day I improved in more than 1s my last time so yes, Honda made a huge step but, once again, if I look at the positions still… P18. All four Honda are inside the pack, but the gap is the same as last year because the other manufacturers also improved. We are missing, I clearly can see it.
As for what was the biggest improvements on his bike compared to what he tried in the Valencia tests, at the end of 2023, the japanese said: ‘Clearly the engine performance and also the bike is much more stable on the braking, and in the turning, super stable…’.
Nakagami then said, just like Alberto Puig did, there are a lot more areas in which the bike has to get better: ‘Ok, the bike from last year was the most difficult on the rear we saw and it was difficult to understand what was happening and the 2024 bike is a huge improvement, but still we are missing with the rear grip, we can improve it and of course there are more areas, on the eletronic side in we are still playing a lot, but the base package is more or less ok’.