No Honda in the top 10: Pol Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami talk about the problems and are surprised to see little reaction from Japan
Honda played no part in the British Grand Prix. Takaaki Nakagami finished 13th and Pol Espargaro 14th. Alex Marquez and Stefan Bradl saw the chequered flag but did not score any World Championship points. In the constructors’ standings, Honda are in sixth and last place.
A year ago Espargaro started from pole position at Silverstone. This time no Honda rider made it to Q2. “Pol was on pole last year with 1:58.8 minutes. This year the pole is 1:57.7,” Nakagami compares.
“That’s more than a second faster. Honda has not improved. I don’t know. We are lost. We have no feeling and we can’t attack. If we try, it’s easy to crash. The confidence is very low. “
Clear words are spoken by Espargaro, who will leave Honda at the end of the season and return to KTM. In the meantime the Spaniard expresses himself much more critically and cannot hide his disappointment.
“What bothers me is that Honda is not talking about it. There is no reaction. I don’t see that Honda is very concerned. I don’t know what to interpret. The worst thing is that a manufacturer like this is not showing its muscles.”
“Five years ago it would have been unthinkable that the Japanese brands would have problems and the Italians would fly. It was impossible to foresee. The problem is that I have no idea what Honda is thinking,” said Espargaro.
“I don’t know if what is happening here will reach Japan. At first sight it doesn’t look like it because we are not getting the material we need to improve the bike. “
Stefan Bradl: “Honda had to prepare Suzuka “
Honda celebrated an important prestigious success last weekend. For the 28th time they won the famous Suzuka 8 Hours race. In Japan, success in this race is almost as important as a MotoGP World Championship title.
“They had to prepare the Suzuka 8 Hours race. I am happy that they have won now,” notes Stefan Bradl. “Maybe now they have more capacity for MotoGP again. They are also testing more and more in Japan.”
Still, there were new developments at Silverstone. Nakagami rode with a new chassis. “I think the new chassis is good. It’s a little bit better,” he concluded. “The problem is not the chassis. It’s the balance of the bike or the aerodynamics.”
There were also new winglets, which generate slightly less downforce than the previous fairing. Nakagami and Espargaro rode with them at Silverstone. This used up their once-per-season allowed update.
Qualifying a big weakness
Nakagami, however, switched back to the standard fairing with a little more downforce after practice. Espargaro continued with the new fairing. “The previous version creates more drag, which makes me lose three km/h on the straights,” said the Spaniard.
“I should gain a few tenths of a second with the new fairing, but we are not doing that. We are still slow. The rhythm was not so bad. I lost six seconds on the first lap because I was so far back.”
“In the next 17 laps I only lost seven seconds. So the rhythm was much better than I expected. It makes no sense that we lose seven seconds over 17 laps but 1.5 seconds over one lap in qualifying.”
“That kills our strategy for the race. I would have had the rhythm for sixth, seventh, eighth,” Espargaro believes. The gap between Espargaro and Nakagami at the finish was 14 seconds.
