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Honda's only bastion in 2023, thanks to the victory achieved by Alex Rins on the LCR team's RC213V, the Circuit of the Americas has now also stopped being a friendly track for the Japanese bike. Just as in the Sprint, in this complex weekend in Texas, the manufacturer from the Land of the Rising Sun had to rely on Luca Marini, the only one of its riders to manage to see the finish line in the Grand Prix of the Americas, the Italian finishing in 16th position after a duel with Alex Marquez. A result that gives a good idea of the difficulties encountered in this beginning of the season by the Honda squad, propping up the Constructors' World Championship table, with only eight points scraped together in the first three rounds of the year.
"I'm a survivor!" laughed Luca at the end of the GP, before diving into an analysis of his race, "I did my best, I fought for the last point as I did last year for first position, I gave everything, but we are struggling a lot right now. I think this weekend was very important for us, because last year Honda won the race with Rins, while this year we were pretty far behind everyone else. Comparing the data and understanding everything well will be very important for the Japanese engineers to try to solve the problem as soon as possible. I will of course also try to give them my feedback as best I can, because I think the direction is pretty clear, but it will take time to prepare new parts."
New elements that will have to try to put back together a picture that is not looking particularly rosy.
"I'm not talking about parts concerning only the engine. We are struggling everywhere and we have to understand why everyone has improved so much compared to last year," Marini clarified, " I think the tires, and also the track in this case, have progressed a lot. We are missing something, because this year's bike is very different, but not in a good way. We lost the strengths of the 2023 bike, gaining something, but not enough, in what were the weaknesses of that bike."
Mir: "We are in a difficult situation, the bike does not allow you to do anything more."
Like Marini, his teammate Joan Mir also struggled on the Austin track, finding himself on the ground in an attempt to recover from a bad start and get into the battle for the points zone.
"It was not the race I expected. I got a really bad start, then I started to get into a rhythm and when I was able to warm up a little bit and catch up to the group in front of me, which included Quaratararo and the Aprilia riders, I lost the rear in Turn 6 and crashed. There's not much to say, it's a shame because the intensity is there, but we're not on the right track at all. Luca is a survivor - Joan downplayed with a joke - The situation is very difficult and if you want to do something more you can't do it. That's kind of what happened in the race. We have to be strong, work hard and overcome this situation."
Work at Honda headquarters continues unabated, and the two-time world champion hopes it will be useful to turn the season around.
" We will have a very important test in Barcelona and then the one in Jerez, where we will have to understand whether or not we can take a step forward by mid-season," noted the Mallorcan, admitting that, like Yamaha, Honda is also working on a new engine specification: "We are also working on it for this season."
