Honda has "serious problems" with 2022 MotoGP bike
Pol Espargaro says Honda has "serious problems" with rear grip on its 2022 MotoGP bike after a "really bad" Portuguese Grand Prix.
Honda overhauled its RC213V for the 2022 season after several lean seasons prompted by Marc Marquez's serious arm injury in 2020 and a lack of results for HRC's other riders.
The new bike was met with glowing praise by most Honda riders in the pre-season, as the more rear-biased motorcycle delivered the rear grip it had been missing for some time.
While the feeling on the front end was different – with this being the key issue in Marquez's understanding of the bike currently – Honda started strongly in Qatar, with Espargaro finishing third after fighting for victory.
But aside from Marquez's rise up the field to sixth in Austin, strong results have been hard to come by since the opening round of the season.
In Portugal, all Honda riders struggled for pace, with Marquez leading his brother Alex Marquez in sixth, while Espargaro was ninth – all three HRC runners over 16 seconds from the victory.
Branding his race as "tough, difficult and really bad", Espargaro says the main issue at Portimao was a lack of rear grip and is at a complete loss as to what is causing this.
"We're missing what we had on the pre-season, it's difficult to understand because we do not stop the bike in the correct place with the rear brake," he began.
"And then we are leaning too much, opening the throttle and spinning on the edge. It makes no sense also that we chose the hard rear tyre and the other riders on the grid chose the medium.
"We chose the hard because it felt better for us on the acceleration, the traction, but we saw Marc use the medium and it was the same.
Pol Espargaro, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
"We are always choosing between what we want to get: side grip or drive grip.
"They [our rivals] have both, so why do we need to choose? It's difficult to understand because the bike we are using now, it was working perfectly in Qatar or in the pre-season.
"All the riders agreed, the feelings of everyone were good – apart from some small problems in the front. But nobody was complaining about the rear.
"And now we have serious problems and we don't know how to solve them. Now it's time to be united in the factory, work in one line together."
Espargaro added that no major changes have been made to the Honda since pre-season testing as it was "by far" the fastest bike on the grid.
"We have made no big change on the bike, just small settings that will not produce that [problem with rear grip]," he noted.
"Why do we need to change the bike if we were fastest in the pre-season? It makes no sense to change the bike.
"In the pre-season we were the fastest in one lap, but also the fastest in rhythm by far.
"So, we didn't change the bike because the bike was amazing. We added some small details that didn't produce this big change and we are suffering."
Related video
Mir hopes Miller will “learn” from their Portugal MotoGP tangle
Rins: Nobody believed Portugal MotoGP fightback was possible
Ellis to replace injured Auer for Bathurst 12 Hour
Philip Ellis will make his Bathurst 12 Hour debut this week as a stand-in for the injured Lucas Auer.
Despite heroic comeback, Corvette missing speed at Daytona
Corvette Racing came from two laps down to finish second in class at the Rolex 24 Hours but lost out in the final shootout to a quicker Mercedes.
Winning MSR Acura "super lucky" with Rolex 24 gearbox scare
The Meyer Shank Racing Acura team was "super lucky" that it was able to win the Rolex 24 at Daytona despite having a malfunctioning gearbox for most of the race, according to team founder and co-owner Michael Shank.
Bourdais “surprised” Cadillac was beaten on pace in Rolex 24
Chip Ganassi Racing ace Sebastien Bourdais has expressed surprise that the Acura ARX-06 outperformed the similarly new Cadillac V-LMDh around Daytona.
The other Suzuki signing that could transform Honda's MotoGP form
Following Suzuki's decision to quit MotoGP, both of its former riders have landed at Honda for 2023. But perhaps its biggest signing from the now-defunct team could instead be a highly-rated technical manager. Is Ken Kawauchi the right man at the right time to steer HRC back to glory?
How the MotoGP paddock has offered refuge to Suzuki's former team
Suzuki's unexpected departure left more than 40 professionals virtually jobless for the 2023 MotoGP season. But that human drama has been successfully corrected by the paddock itself, with most former Suzuki crew members absorbed into other operations.
How one MotoGP team went from title challengers to losing it all in four years
The Petronas Sepang Racing Team came into MotoGP with a bang in 2019 as regular front-runners, with wonder rookie Fabio Quartararo mounting a title challenge in 2020. But it all went wrong for the Razlan Razali-helmed squad as the team changed hands and tumbled down the order - and RNF Racing plans to right this in 2023
Is Marc Marquez ready to reclaim his MotoGP throne?
Marc Marquez’s sixth premier MotoGP title seems a long time ago given the injury woes he has faced in the three years since. At the end of a fraught 2022, in which he had a fourth major operation on his right arm, the Spaniard speaks exclusively to Motorsport.com.
How MotoGP's underachiever is working to reverse its fortunes in 2023
As European manufacturers emerged as the strongest force in 2022 in a changing of the guard for MotoGP, one powerhouse couldn’t quite match the feats of Ducati and Aprilia. Its motorsport chief tells Motorsport.com why this is and what it is doing to become a consistent frontrunner in the class of kings
How MotoGP riders are preparing for the physical stress of sprint races
With the expansion of the calendar to 21 grands prix and the introduction of sprint races, the 2023 MotoGP season will take the riders to almost 1,300 kilometres of more competition than this year, a factor that forces adjustments in their physical preparations.
Luca Marini: Why he's more than just Valentino Rossi's brother
Surname pressure is something many have had to deal with in their motorsport careers. And while Luca Marini doesn’t have that, his familial relation and the team he rides for in MotoGP have cast a brighter spotlight on his progress. But, as he has shown in 2022 – and as he reveals to Motorsport.com – Marini is so much more than just the brother of a legend.
Ranking the top 10 MotoGP riders of 2022
The 2022 MotoGP season was another hotly contested championship, with Francesco Bagnaia emerging as the title winner after the campaign went to the wire. Motorsport.com picks out the 10 best performers of the season
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.