A snazzy new livery and a perfect-replacement-for-Repsol new title partner in Castrol can by themselves generate a fair bit of Honda positivity going into the 2025 MotoGP season - but cannot overshadow the scope of Honda's recent premier-class travails.
Justifiably jilted by its legend Marc Marquez after 2023, Honda was a distant last in the manufacturers' standings last year, and also a distant last in the teams' standings with its works team - cut desperately adrift not just of the other brands, but of its own satellite team LCR.
You wouldn't necessarily get any of that from what’s now Castrol Honda's Jakarta launch on Saturday - which makes sense - but the more conspicuous absence from the presentation was Honda's splashy 2025 hire who is tasked with turning this ship around.
Aprilia design mastermind Romano Albesiano has arrived alongside Aleix Espargaro (new test rider), but while Espargaro is still close to his peak and will be an obvious asset it's Albesiano who the Honda regulars' hopes truly rest with.
The two of them are, anyway, busy enough working in the pre-test three-day Sepang shakedown - and whatever the focus of the launch was, Honda's works riders Luca Marini and Joan Mir made no secret of how significant Albesiano's arrival was.
"I spoke with him many times [already]," said Marini.
"I think he's the great and good engineer, good person, that Honda needs in this moment.
"We need to try to help him to know well the Japanese method and how to communicate with them, but for sure he already knows and has understood everything - because he's a very smart and clever person."
A lot is expected of him, Marini also acknowledged. Those expectations include establishing "a more strategic approach" - making for more clarity.
"Romano that has to implement his working method in Honda - probably not implement, but just adapt," said Mir. "More adapt.
"From what I could see, he's very methodical, we have a line to follow, every day just following the rules, he wants everything super clear. It's a way of working that has worked for him in the past, so it's normal that he wants to do it here, in Honda."
For Marini, this arrival is central to what he describes as Honda's "counter-attack". But so are other outside recruits on the engineering side - coming also from other manufacturers.
"I think this is a huge change that Honda never had in the past," he said.
"For this reason things are starting to change.
"I already said this last year, but even more I can see this change through this winter. For sure Romano started working on the new project only in January [after his Aprilia contract ended], so it will take us some time to feel his ideas and his hands on this new project.
"But... sharing the knowledge and the feedback from other manufacturers, and especially the method, the working method that Italian manufacturers now have, will change everything."
That optimism, though, came with a curious bit of thinking-out-loud from Mir, whose words can easily be regarded as a warning.
"I want to understand if Honda will give him [Albesiano] total freedom to give everything that he has," Mir mused. "Probably yes, from what I see."
When will Honda be back?
Mir didn't sound very positive at all after sampling Honda's initial off-season offerings in the Barcelona post-season test last year - in contrast to Marini, who was generally more impressed.
"At the end of the last test I wasn't as happy as I probably expected to be," Mir acknowledged.
"But I've been talking with Santi [Hernandez, crew chief] about the new upgrades that we are receiving at the moment. Looks like he's quite optimistic. So this makes me happy, this makes me optimistic also."
Mir also indicated that Hernandez - a multiple-time title-winning crew chief with Marquez as his rider - was likewise revelling in Albesiano's early impact, which buoyed Mir as Hernandez is "very clear, and someone that can't hide his [true] emotions".
But all of the recruitment will take time, and the initial expectation seems to be that Honda should take another step but will still have quite a ways to go.
Marini - who's had a plate removed from his collarbone in the off-season that had been there after his injury in India in 2023 - is particularly eyeing the second half of the season, by when he hopes Honda can make enough progress to make its riders Q2 regulars, something that they very much weren't in 2024.
"It's something generic," he said when asked by The Race whether that timeline of his was informed by behind-the-scenes knowledge of any specific Honda upgrade project.
"I know how Honda works and in the first part of the season for sure we're going to try a completely new prototype, but still we need to adjust everything.
"But following our direction from last year and our feedback, I think we can start this season with a higher level - but still not enough, for sure, to fight for the target that we want to achieve.
"After the first part of the season, more or less during the half part, can be a good moment to try to do something better with a better package, more competitive. But for sure everything needs to go in the correct direction, with no mistakes - this is also not so easy!"
