Why Honda doesn’t want to get carried away with testing form as new MotoGP season begins

Factory Honda riders are cautiously optimistic about their prospects for the 2025 MotoGP season despite being buoyed by the improved performance of the RC213V in testing.

Honda enjoyed a strong showing in pre-season running at Sepang and Buriram, as the work the Japanese manufacturer put in during the winter delivered the desired results on track.

LCR rider Johann Zarco finished seventh-quickest after three days of testing in Malaysia, while factory team’s Joan Mir placed eighth in the two-day Thailand test.

Beyond the improvement in lap times, the bike itself proved easier to ride, instilling confidence in riders who had previously been left scared by its tendency to crash regularly. 

However, as the opening round of the season approaches, the likes of Mir and team-mate Luca Marini started to become more circumspect about where they actually stand in the pecking order.

Marini, now entering his sophomore season with the Japanese manufacturer, insisted that he wanted to confirm Honda’s progress at a more representative track instead of drawing any conclusions from pre-season testing.

The Chang International Circuit in Buriram, which hosts this week’s season-opener, is famous for its low-grip asphalt, meaning it’s not the best indicator of a bike’s performance in MotoGP.

“We enjoyed the test. We did a good job and now we can start the season in the best way possible,” he said. “It will be interesting to see our real potential in a normal GP.

“Let’s see [how we perform] in a standard GP with a normal situation with a normal grip on track. 

“It’s too early to be so happy. It’s too early. We need to wait a few races to understand the situation well because during the test everything is fantastic but [that was the case] for everybody because the track was in a great condition.”

For Mir, the nadir of 2023-24 has left him in a difficult spot. Even though he genuinely appeared to have got his smile back in pre-season testing, the Spaniard said he could not let himself get carried away and risk being disappointed later.

Asked how optimistic he was going into the Thai GP, he said. “Not too high, but in a good mood I would say. I’m optimistic.

“I’m nervous to start the season because I want to see, to demonstrate and to understand [where we are]. 

“In the last [few] years I understood that I can’t be super optimistic because I need to protect myself in case that it is not working. This is also a mental game. 

“Obviously the pore-season test was good, it was positive that I was able to stay in positions that I would like to be during the season and not only once but all the days. 

“I’m optimistic that we did in the test was something great, was something nice, we made a good long run, we made a good one lap that we can improve [on].”

Mir’s race simulation in the Buriram test raised a number of eyebrows, as he was able to lap at the same pace as Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

While the 2020 champion admitted that he was himself impressed by his long-run pace at Honda, he felt he needed to look at any lap times from testing with a pinch of salt.

“Well the reality is that in the test the long run was very fast,” he said. “I don’t want to look at that so much because I don’t know how realistic [it] is. That pace is top five pace. 

“In the case of Fabio, his lap was not very good but his pace is good and I’m sure that they will make a step [forward] this weekend. So I don’t want to look at that so much because I don’t want to be super super optimistic.”

Mir’s team-mate Marini revealed that Honda will start the season with the same spec-bike as it ran in pre-season testing.

But he said that if everything goes according to plan, more tangible improvements can be seen on the bike from September onwards.

“It’s impossible to say when the bike will be much better than this but for sure there is a plan to bring new specs of everything like last year,” he said.

“So if everything is fine, everything is perfect, then maybe the last part of the season, [from] Misano test, this period can be a much better package.”