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Austin in the past had been a bit of a lifeline for Honda. Even without Marquez, last year it provided the only success of the season thanks to Rins. Yesterday, however, it looked like a nightmare for the RC213V, with Honda's four riders propping up the leaderboard. It hadn't gone well in Portimao either, and that's enough to set off alarm bells for Mir.
"We have problems and we are struggling more than I expected after the winter testing," he said, " I can't say what the problem is, but we are not improving. I think we have taken a direction that is not the right one and we are paying the consequences. We have to keep working, we understand what's going on and we have to solve it."
For the Majorcan, Honda has taken a step backward in Texas compared to the past.
"Even without the crash, I wouldn't have had a chance to get into Q2, while last year I was closer, I missed out by a couple of tenths," he recalled, "For some reason, we are struggling more than in 2023, especially in braking and sliding the bike. In the past the Honda was more agile than the other bikes, but now it is not."
Right now you have to react and do it quickly
"The important thing is to take responsibility for what is happening and change direction quickly," he continued, " We have to be smart and concessions can help us a lot. As a rider I feel strong, I'm pushing and not giving up, but right now we have limits. Last year I was struggling less in the single lap and that made the weekend less complicated. Now, on the other hand, I'm slower in the time attack than on the pace: it's the opposite. The old bike was more responsive and it was easier to exploit the tires, with this one you can't attack like that."
After the Jerez GP there will be one day of testing, and after Mugello another: will Honda be able to react quickly and bring some new things? "I really hope so, but I'm not sure. I think more no than yes," was Mir's answer.
Luca Marini: "We have understood the direction, now we have to take it."
Luca Marini also struggled like his teammate on a track that had always been congenial to him. It is further evidence of the Honda's limitations.
"We tried to do our best to improve, but we are quite far away, especially when we mount the soft tire - he described his troubles - We have to understand why we lose so much, the gap becomes huge, while with the medium we are closer. The problem is that on this track we will use the soft for the race as well, so we have to keep working. I don't know why we have these problems, maybe it's a matter of temperature because the tire moves a lot, you struggle to turn the bike and the grip is the same as the medium."
Marini, however, is slightly more optimistic than Joan.
"We have understood the direction to go, but now we have to take it ," he explained, " It takes time, we are only at the third race and I am very confident because we always have something to try. There are many things to improve, we are still far from 100 percent."
