Both Zarco and his teammate Nakagami had the chance to ride the new version of the RC213V bike at Jerez. This bike was tested by HRC rider Stefan Bradl during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.
However, everyone had a similar negative reaction to the new Honda bike. Zarco said the bike didn’t perform better than before.
“We tried it out a few times, but we couldn’t find many good things to say about it,” Zarco said. “Only one part was better, but everything else wasn’t.”
He added, “The lap times didn’t improve. So, we can’t say the bike has improved. I was hoping for a step forward with this test and the new bike, but I didn’t see it. Right now, the pace of the bike, even the new one, isn’t good.”
After testing the new prototype, Zarco went back to using the same bike he rode during the Spanish GP. He made it clear that he won’t be involved in further developing the new ‘lab bike’. He said that usually when a bike is made, it should perform better. If it doesn’t, they have to put it aside.
Zarco also mentioned that he won’t ask Honda to stop working on the lab bike. He said, “It’s not my job to tell Honda how to work with the test team. If all the riders test this new bike and don’t feel right, maybe the test team won’t work on it anymore. But I won’t tell Honda to stop working on it because I’m not in that position.”
While both Zarco and Mir had similar thoughts about the new lab bike, Mir felt positive overall about the Jerez test. He thinks it helped Honda figure out what direction they should take in MotoGP.
