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LCR rider Taka Nakagami believes a lack of communication within Honda’s racing wing HRC is playing a key role in the team’s current slump in results – and that one key way out of the current situation is to build stronger links between the disparate pieces of the Japanese giant’s MotoGP project
Currently 12 races without a podium, Honda’s worst results since the early 1980s, there doesn’t even seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel in 2022, with all hopes now firmly pinned on the return of a hopefully fully fit Marc Marquez and the addition of new signings Joan Mir and Alex Rins for next year instead.
But that’s easier said than done given just how difficult the current RC213V machine seems to be – and, echoing Marquez’s sentiments from last month’s Austrian Grand Prix, Nakagami says that Honda needs to find a way to work as a more integrated team the way the sport’s European manufacturers do.
“I think we have to change how we approach it,” he explained. “Between Japan and Europe, it is a little bit difficult, there are some misunderstandings.
“But I think we have to use the test team more, because to be honest at some point I don’t understand what they are testing. Sometimes we get the information and sometimes we don’t, and at times there are misunderstandings.
“I would like to try and get more information from the test team and the Japanese side. HRC also has a Japanese test team and maybe we can try and connect. Better communication between all the riders and teams. Then hopefully everything would be more quick and we’d understand each other more to try and build up faster.
“Sometimes I don’t get any information from the test team. It’s been a tough season for Honda. I know Stefan has been testing many times at Jerez, but sometimes we got zero information about what he tested, whether the comments were positive or negative.
“Sometimes we get positive comments and they ask me to test something during a race weekend, but sometimes we hear nothing. It’s better for us to understand what they’re doing, what’s positive or negative.”
Asked for why he believed was the root of the communication shortcomings, he said: “To be honest, I think a little bit changed because of COVID. Less testing, less people from Japan – the system changed a bit because of COVID. We need to come back, or, I don’t know…”
However, a more local factor that has played a role is the absence of test rider Stefan Bradl from his usual job. Instead, Bradl has been on injury replacement duties for Marquez for the best part of three seasons, riding the same number of races as the six-time world champion (22 apiece) since the start of the 2020 season.
And, with his focus being on riding every weekend and not on developing a better RC213V – especially in the context of a radical redesign of the machine for 2022 – he says that the impact has been a big one.
“There is work to do,” he said. “It is always a plus and minus, because I like to compete, I like to perform, I like to show my speed, but on the other hand we know we are in a difficult moment where we have to improve and work hard on our bike.
“Definitely it’s a problem that is related to the bike, and I’m looking forward to improving. I like to have a challenge and I like to look forward, to see progress.
“The details are counting much more than in the past, especially when you make a big change on the bike. The first feeling is always good, but you have to take care of all the little details. That requires a lot of time and a lot of laps, quality laps. This has become much more, not only for the rider but also for the technicians to analyse every little detail. The whole bike and the whole technical process has become much more complicated.
“It’s not bad to have some races, but always I’m in the middle because I suffer with developing the bike. At some times it’s good to be a test rider, but at some times I like to be a racer as well. If the results are good, I like to race, and if they’re not good I like to test!”
And while it might, on paper, be a benefit to Honda to having Bradl on track every weekend – something that some of its rivals were initially opposed to during 2020 – he says that it’s not the advantage that many think, something highlighted by Nagakami’s recent experience with new aerodynamic updates.
“Taka had the new aerodynamic package in Silverstone,” he explained, “but there is no time to actually try these big changes during a race weekend because you have to get up to speed, find the confidence, fight for a spot in Q2.
“He’s always going for laptimes, and if you have new things on the bike then you need time with them to get the confidence. And there is no time during a GP weekend.”
And with plenty of work to do to catch up now that Marquez is looking more likely to come back fully fit for 2023, with 2020 world champion Mir alongside him, Bradl says he’s welcoming rumours that Honda are considering adding Nakagami to their tester stable should, as expected, he be replaced at LCR by Moto2 points leader Ai Ogura.
“At this point, it would be nice to have two test riders at this kind of speed and quality,” Bradl admitted. “It will be definitely helpful, but if you look around I can’t see too many people able to do this kind of job.
“I’m happy where I am and I like the challenge, and at some point I will be able to tell you guys that we are out of this difficult situation and ready to be back on the podium.”
While Bradl should return to the sidelines soon given the pace of Marquez’s recovery, Honda will have another tester race for it at Motegi in Tetsuta Nagashima – the sometime Moto2 veteran and recent Suzuka 8 Hours victor.
