Were you right?
Unexpectedly the first 2022 pre-season tests went OK, so we were quite confident, even though we had a much shorter time to reach the top level. But then the struggles started…
Why did the struggles start?
What you do in a test session is one thing. To make the final adjustments to the bike and for the riders to find the correct way to ride that track is another thing over a race weekend. Last season we were OK in pre-season testing but we lost our way trying to make the final adjustments to the new bike. We weren’t very sure how to do it, apart from the Qatar race, which was OK. But from the second race we lost our way a bit and we are still looking for the way.
What’s the most critical part of cornering at the moment? Getting the bike turned, so the rider can point it out of the corner, lift it up and open the throttle?
You have four parts to each corner: straight braking, going into the corner, mid-corner and then corner exit. Straight braking is one thing but going into the corner is the most critical point. Many times our riders complain there’s no traction out of the corner, so no acceleration, but then we realize the problem is in corner entry.
Sometimes Márquez did make the 2022 RC213V work – at Motegi last September he scored his first pole position in three years
Honda
Because if you enter and turn well you can lift up the bike and exit with grip?
Yes, you can lift up the bike, choose your line and go… Until last season our bike was missing rear grip, this wasn’t a secret. So the pure problem was the exit, so now we seem to have found a way to improve the corner exit, in pure traction, but to gain that traction we seem to have sacrificed going into the corner, with the front tyre.
How do you fix that?
It’s obvious we don’t clearly know the answer. Let’s say that until 2022 we seemed to understand better how to enter corners, so if we look at what we did in the past maybe we can find a solution.
Kalex have made a swingarm for the RC213V, so are they working with you on general chassis design?
No, just the swing arm.
Over the last two seasons we have seen Aprilia and Ducati develop ground-effect aerodynamics, which increase grip by sucking the tires into the ground. It seems like the Japanese factories aren’t so keen to take this direction, but surely you have to if you want to win again?
Yes, we have to. You are right in saying that if you want to win in MotoGP nowadays we are forced to go this direction. The one clear reason why Honda is here is to make people happy all over the world, not only in racing, not only MotoGP riders, but everyone, by selling nice street bikes, so if we are forced to do something that’s impossible to be transferred to our street bikes then we aren’t very happy to do it.
KTM thinks the same but is now working with Red Bull Formula 1 aerodynamicists.
We have to do this, because, in a way, winning in MotoGP is one part of making Honda fans happy, so that’s why we are forced to do it. But especially from an engineering point of view it’s not a direct way to make people happy, because for us the direct way to make people happy is by making better street bikes, with technology.
So MotoGP and street bikes are diverging, like Formula 1 and street cars. The diffuser fairing that Marc started using at Phillip Island features smaller diffusers than Ducati’s, so how much difference do the diffusers make?
It’s just to control airflow, to make better grip and turning.
And do they improve performance?
yes Otherwise we wouldn’t use them – they give more grip and more turning.
Next year, MotoGP’s tire pressure rules will be enforced for the first time – will this be a big thing?
It’s something we need to be more careful about.
We know that some teams currently run the front tire below the 1.9 bar limit and KTM’s MotoGP project leader Sebastian Risse told me that if you go much over 2.0 the rider crashes, so it sounds very tricky.
Yes, the window is so small…