Takaaki Nakagami has agreed to a two-year extension of the HRC MotoGP contract and will be upgraded to the latest Honda machines next season.
The Japanese cleaned that up Gray areas created by a previous HRC announcement, who vaguely spoke of a new contract for “2021 and beyond” and didn’t mention the bike specification.
Nakagami stays with LCR, his home since moving to MotoGP in 2018, where he is supported by his new team-mate Alex Marquez. But while he’s been racing one-year-old machines so far, all four Hondas from Marc Marquez, Pol Espargaro, Alex Marquez and Nakagami will be the “same package” next year.
This is what Nakagami had to say about the future deal, as well as his thoughts on the second round of Aragon this weekend, including comparisons with last Sunday’s data and opinion of runner-up Alex Marquez on the new Ohlins stern shock …
“I’ll be riding the newest bike for another two years.”
“Yes, another two years set for the future. Now I can concentrate on the last four races. As always or the main goal, the first step is to get the first podium this weekend. And if I can win the race too, I would.” be more than happy.
“For next season, I can say I’ll be riding the newest bike. I mean four bikes exactly the same. So that’s good news for me. For the past three years I’ve ridden the previous one [year’s] Bicycle. For the next season, the regulations are not the same as usual [engine freeze until 2022], but yes, Honda says the four motorcycles – from Marc, Alex, Pol and me – the same package, the same motorcycles.
On the subject of matching items
“It’s good. I’m really happy and now it’s time to show our real potential. If we can beat the Repsol team, I think fighting with the factory team would be nice. I can’t go on to the next season wait and me. ” I think we can do it with this team, Giacomo and all of my employees.
“Still, we haven’t talked about 2022 [bike yet] Just that I can use the newest bike for next season. “
“I negotiated with HRC myself”
“I don’t have a manager. I’ve negotiated with Kuwata-san in the past as always. It’s very easy, but for the future I think to have a manager and then it will be easier. Because now before the weekend I have . ” knock on Kuwata-san’s door: “Can we talk this weekend?”
On the subject of matching items
“It’s usually after the race because I don’t want to talk about the future on my side on the weekend either. But I lose a lot of time, sometimes I’m not available, sometimes Kuwata-san is not available. So for the future I think to have a manager. “
“Small differences between me and Alex”
“After this [last weekend’s] Race I’ve seen Alex’s data, we’ve compared all 23 laps from 1-23 and I can see some small differences between me and Alex. He drove pretty well all weekend, but the gap is so tight, only two tenths between the best lap time for me and Alex. Those two tenths are really big, but it’s almost nothing on the graph.
“He had a bit more cornering speed in some areas and the bike picked up well. But only that. I can’t just see one point, it’s all small details that ultimately make up two tenths. It’s easy to understand. It’s us. ” ready to adjust and improve for this weekend.
“Of course there are different bikes between the Repsol team and mine. So we can’t fully compare. But for the setup we can see the different levels of bike balance, with the chain force, a bit different balance.
“Still, I have a bit of wheelie and less front contact, so we tried to adjust the bike, maybe the front height a little lower to get a little more front contact everywhere. This is an important point because when I feel the front contact is a little less when I lose speed.
“Let’s see how the track conditions are. It’s raining now [Thursday evening]. And the race time is 1 p.m., not 3 p.m. It should be a little warmer this weekend too, but the earlier time means I think the track temperature will be the same.
“But if the temperature is 5 degrees different, we have to think about another tire option because the soft rear was at its limit last weekend. So I’m thinking of trying the medium or even hard option this weekend.”
“I lose in the first 10 rounds.”
“Alex is doing very well, especially after the Misano test, I think he has something, I mean, I can hear the bike [had] Some update and change the setting and he tried to adjust as there are no other testing days this season. Then he got faster and faster and now he knows how to adapt to the Honda bike.
“Aragon in particular is a good track for Honda and he put it all together. He was really impressive last weekend, he was also one of the most consistent during the race. I was too, but he was faster than me on the first 10 laps. ” And I couldn’t fill the gap
“It’s easy to see and say that when I compare to Alex’s data, I lose in the first 10 laps, especially last weekend. One thing I found is that I don’t perform well in the beginning because towards the end of the race, I had the best time in sector 3. On the one hand it’s good, on the other hand it’s not.
“At the beginning I have to bring my maximum performance when there is more grip and the bike feels good. Because Alex does everything at the beginning of the race. The brake pressure in some corners was not stable either.
“Especially when I was behind someone like Jack or Quartararo. I’ve changed the driving, a little too smooth and that’s the worst point for me. I have to get more aggressive behind some drivers.
“Alex was more aggressive behind someone, if he saw some space he tried to put the bike in and was able to overtake. I have to improve here and I’m really important because MotoGP is so close now. If you are a few tenths behind you loses The race will be difficult with other drivers.
“If we understand and can improve, I think we can have a podium very soon.
“Alex is fine, Cal, after the injury and the arm pump look good and the data is pretty good. Hopefully we’ll try to put them together and HRC will build the bike step by step using the launcher [etc]. The performance of the bike gets better with every step. So in the end it all comes down to the drivers.
“I don’t know if Marc will be back in Valencia or Portimao, but the bike is definitely good and if Marc comes back he will be able to fight 100% for victory.”
New Ohlins shock: “If the first impression is positive, I keep it”
“On some tracks it’s pretty easy to understand that it’s pretty positive, but sometimes I don’t feel the difference. Just for ‘safety’ we go back to the standard. Because it’s easy to get lost and lose time.”
“So if I think the first impression is pretty positive, we keep using it. But when I feel some corners yes, some no. I’m not sure, we always take it off. We just decide that . “
“For me, the corner entry is not a big difference, but when I have a positive feeling [with the shock] It is braked, but so is the exit. When the rear shock starts to get more [weight] Transfer is smoother and not as bouncy.
“There’s still spin, but I can feel the percentage of spin there. So it’s smoother, less pumping. There’s a bit of extra grip when braking too, but when there’s too much grip in the back it’s not easy leaning on the bike. So it’s all late. When I feel that, we always take off [the new shock] and return to the standard.
“It’s something interesting and there is potential, but everything in MotoGP is so close that you have to adjust a lot of things on the bike [to make it work]then it is difficult to use. “