Honda MotoGP boss "confused" by "good improvements" not working

The Japanese manufacturer has made an abysmal start to the new campaign on its radically overhauled RC213V package.

Scoring just eight points out of a possible 111 from the opening three rounds, no Honda rider has cracked the top 10 yet in either sprint or grand prix.

In last weekend’s Americas Grand Prix, only one Honda rider – Luca Marini – finished the race, albeit 33.529 seconds behind the victor at a track it won at 12 months earlier with Alex Rins.

This comes as the mood in the Honda camp was positive in last November’s Valencia test, but a lack of progress since has stumped the marque.

“The only thing I can tell you is in Japan they are trying hard,” Puig told motogp.com during the Americas GP.

“They are really trying, they are working on many different things.

“They bring new people to the group, they have more manpower. I mean, it’s not that they are sleeping.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“But, on the other hand, we are not getting there and the bike is not performing. We did big changes on the bike, we did good improvements theoretically.

“But you cannot see it on track. At this time we are a little bit confused. We are trying a lot, but we cannot see anything really impressive on track. This is true.”

Joan Mir was highly critical of Honda on Friday at the Americas GP, saying it had to “take responsibility” for going in the wrong direction with the RC213V concept this season.

After the US round, Mir added: “It’s desperate. The situation is very difficult.

“If you want to do something more, you can’t. And what happened a bit in the race was this.

“You see yourself in the mid-pack, the lap times, you get close to it, you make one lap, two laps recovering, but on the third lap the bike says ‘I give up’.

“This is a bit the rhythm of the story. We have to be strong, to work hard and to continue to move on from this situation.”

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