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Honda has broken a long-held tradition of building the vast majority of its key MotoGP components in-house by drafting in the services of Moto2 chassis building masters Kalex to re-design the RC213V’s swingarm.
This is according to a report from German publication Speedweek, suggesting that the new aluminium component will be first tested this week at Misano.
The Japanese factory was the first in MotoGP to make a shift from the traditional use of aluminium to carbon fibre for the key component, in search of more stiffness and better rear tyre life. However, with current Repsol Honda rider Pol Espargaro in particular on the search for rear grip since joining the team at the start of 2021, it seems that the team has now decided to go in another direction and return to tradition.
To do so, it’s taken the highly unusual step of recruiting an external contractor in the form of German engineering firm Kalex, whose Moto2 machines have won the last 10 championships in the intermediate class – every single year since current Honda rider Marc Marquez won on a Suter in 2012.
The new part is expected to make its debut in the hands of Marquez and Espargaro at this week’s post-race test at Misano, with Marquez returning from his latest surgery for the two-day outing which kicks off on Tuesday.
It comes off the back of brutal comments directed Honda’s way on Sunday afternoon by Espargaro, who will depart the team and return to the KTM family at the end of the season.
Echoing the words of others within the squad of late, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the delay in Honda developing new components, a problem exacerbated by test rider Stefan Bradl being forced to stand in for Marquez since May.
“I mean, how many parts have we tested since Qatar, not so much,” Espargaro told MotoGP.com. “On the test after tomorrow, doesn’t look like we have a lot of things to try. So… pfff… like that you will not improve.
“And the others you see, they are putting wings on their bikes every three months, two months. And they are trying to make it better. And they are always faster and faster.
“The race today has been half a second faster per lap than last year’s race that we were on the podium with Marc.
“So, imagine. We would be ridiculously bad [with the bike of] last year as well compared to this year.”
It also marks a significant shift in Honda thinking, one that echoes Marquez’s own comments from his appearance at the Red Bull Ring two weeks’ ago, where he took the opportunity of an update on his condition to call for the team to change its thinking going forward.
“I’m not the guy to say ‘this is the way’ – Honda is the brand that has won the most titles in the world, and I’m here with Honda because I believe in them and I believe that I can come to the top with them,” he said.
“But it’s true that we need to understand the way to organise well, because every time we have more and more races, less testing, and the work in the factory becomes more and more important than in the circuit. ”
