– While LCR rider Diogo Moreira was the Honda rider with the highest points haul at the MotoGP weekend of the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello, things went anything but according to plan for the Honda factory team. Both Joan Mir and Luca Marini complained as early as Friday that the RC213V vibrates too much and therefore moves too much to be able to drive reasonable and above all consistent lap times.
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“I don’t feel comfortable when riding,” Mir said after Friday’s practice. “I can’t give my 100 percent. The motorcycle is stable as long as I go just a little bit beyond the limit. When I do that, it becomes very unstable. Stability is currently a problem for us.”
Marini sounded very similar on Friday: “We worked a lot to improve rear wheel grip. We found a little bit in this area, but it doesn’t show in the lap times. So we are still missing quite a bit. What annoys me the most is that I can’t push. I just can’t push because the motorcycle moves so much.”
Mir stops “unrideable” Honda in sprint
In qualifying on Saturday, Mir started from 15th place, Marini from 16th. But from exactly these positions, they only tackled the sprint on Saturday. Marini finished the sprint in P13 and thus outside the points. Mir did not finish. The former world champion stopped his factory Honda in the pits and then warned that “the vibrations made the bike unrideable.” Later he added that certain parts overheated due to the vibrations.
In the Grand Prix on Sunday, Mir again started from position 15 but, as already on the previous day in the sprint, had a bad start again, losing several positions immediately. “When I then tried to catch up bit by bit, I got close to the group with Brad [Binder] and Diogo [Moreira]. They were going backwards while I was a bit faster.”
“But then,” Mir continued, “I lost the speed I had throughout the race. In the last three laps, I had to pay the price because the tire was completely worn out. Diogo passed me again, it was a nice duel. I think it wasn’t worth risking more at that moment.” Mir finished in P12, while the mentioned Diogo Moreira reached the points in P10, which he had narrowly missed in his strong sprint on Saturday.
Marini pushed off by Fernandez on Sunday
Meanwhile, Marini had other problems on Sunday. Due to a grid penalty, he did not start the Grand Prix from position 16 but only from position 19. The reason for the penalty: In the second free practice on Saturday morning, he had dawdled on the racing line and held up Franco Morbidelli and Jorge Martin. Although the offense happened before the sprint, such grid penalties are generally only applied for the Grand Prix.
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In the Grand Prix itself, Marini then had “a great start and great first corners,” as he recalls. In fact, the Italian came back from the first lap in 13th place, and one lap later he was already classified as 12th. But then there was an incident with Raul Fernandez. The Trackhouse rider had started from the front row but lost many positions immediately in turn 1.
“In the fourth lap, Raul pushed me into the gravel bed at turn 10. It was a difficult situation and I lost positions,” recalls Marini, who fell from 12th to 15th place on this occasion. Fernandez received a post-race penalty for the action, which dropped him from P8 to P9 in the final Grand Prix result.
What Joan Mir says is the real problem at Honda
For Marini, ultimately no more than P13 directly behind teammate Mir was possible after the incident. Marini thus collected three world championship points at the Mugello weekend, Mir scored four points, and Diogo Moreira on the LCR Honda collected six points.
The problem that the Honda RC213V vibrates too much according to the two factory riders is one thing. But Joan Mir presents a completely different problem. When asked if he feels that Honda’s gap to the front has grown larger over the course of the season so far, the former world champion responds with a statement that gives cause for thought.
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“Every time there are test rides and we don’t have new parts but the others [manufacturers] do, then the others improve but we don’t. That means we fall further and further behind step by step. That is a fact. And on tracks like here in Mugello, our performance deficit compared to KTM, Aprilia, and Ducati becomes particularly clear.”
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