Zarco, Nakagami ‘expected better, bit disappointed’ with ‘Bradl’ Honda

LCR riders Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami backed up Joan Mir’s opinion that the ‘new’ RC213V, used by test rider Stefan Bradl as a wild-card in the Spanish MotoGP weekend, is not the way forward.

Mir had already discarded the ‘prototype’ after a recent private test in Catalunya.

However, Mir was buoyant about a ‘new concept’, believed to be engine related, perhaps including parts from last year, that he tried at Monday’s official Jerez test.

“I tried the [new Bradl] bike in Montmelo. Some positive and some negative but not the right direction... So the bike of Stefan is not the bike we will continue developing,” Mir explained on Monday.

“[Instead] we tried a different… concept. It was working. It’s a direction we need to develop that can have potential in the future, not now. [But] we know finally the direction to take.

“We are trying to find the turning. That is the weakest point.”

During Monday’s test, Bradl’s Jerez race machines appeared in the LCR pits for their feedback.

“We have all four riders trying different things and different combinations and I think by the end of the day we will have probably some important conclusions,” HRC team manager Alberto Puig told MotoGP.com.

Those conclusions presumably included a clear thumbs down for the Bradl bike, with Zarco and Nakagami echoing Mir's comments (Mir’s team-mate Luca Marini, 23rd at the test, did not speak to the media on Monday).

“We tried the new bike. We expected better from this new bike and we didn't have the speed that we want yet,” said 20th fastest Zarco. “Some areas could work better but some others were worse...

“But I'm so impressed by the work Honda is doing and that gives a lot of motivation to keep pushing. 

"At the moment I'm feeling more comfortable on my [current] bike, so that's why we’re going to work on it still for the next grand prix.”

Nakagami, the fastest RC213V rider in 16th at the test, added: “This morning we got the opportunity to test the Bradl bike, which is the proto-bike. 

"We did a couple of runs, I think between 25 and 30 laps and it was enough because honestly speaking the performance and the feeling of the bike doesn't change so much. 

"And also the lap time doesn't come, because pretty much similar issues like we have [with the current race bike].

“Little bit disappointed, of course. Everyone's expecting that the prototype will be some potential. But the reality is it doesn't change so much.

“But the good thing is that after the Jerez GP we already got the [first ride on a] new bike and this is something in the past that never happened, normally until Misano [in September]."

“We are working a lot. Honda is not sleeping. We are trying to find a solution because still we are clearly not where we want to be,” said Puig.

Under the revised concession system, Honda and Yamaha are now allowed to change engine design during the racing season.