Johann Zarco encouraged by “very different feeling” Honda at Misano MotoGP test

Johann Zarco was in a positive mood after the one-day Misano MotoGP test, having tried a selection of new parts for the Honda RC213V.

Zarco has been one of the standout performers for Honda this year, but in 2024 that counts as occasions like Aragon, where Zarco became the first Honda rider this year to put the bike in Q2 directly from Practice on Friday afternoon.

After the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday, Zarco said “this 2024 project does not work at all. It’s not competitive.” The Frenchman was calling for major changes to the RC213V in order to find progress in terms of performance.
Although the RC213V that turned up in Misano for the test was not radically different to what has been used so far this season, and it still uses the same engine specification, Zarco was relatively positive at the end of the one-day test.

“I think we understand more things,” he told MotoGP.com. “We got three ‘blocks’ to try, and we got some good feedback. It was a very different feeling on the bike, which is good; we cannot see it on the performance, on the lap time yet, because all the others are so fast and we didn’t improve the lap time. 

“This feeling is very important, and I think we got this different feeling because the one before was not good and was not helping to go faster. I think now we did something that, working with that, I hope we can do another step.”
Honda brought some new aerodynamics to the test, as well as a new chassis specification.

“We were trying things on the aerodynamics,” Zarco said. “I think everyone can see it. Also on the chassis, we have tried things to get a better feeling in acceleration, and I think we got it. Now we have to see how to use it to perform.”

Asked if Honda now has a direction to head in to continue developing the RC213V, Zarco said: “I think yes. We will see how will be Misano 2. I expect it will be still very difficult. [...] But, maybe for the Asian races, I hope we can get some opportunities of good results.”