Honda’s vaunted new MotoGP chassis built by German manufacturer Kalex has completed its first laps, with test rider Stefan Bradl taking to the track at Jerez on Monday morning during the championship’s first in-season post-race test.
Originally aiming to have it ready for his private test at Jerez ahead of the Americas Grand Prix two weeks ago, that plan had to be delayed after the component was instead shipped to Honda’s racing headquarters in Japan for stiffness analysis work, according to The Race’s sources within the team.
Despite preferring an in-house approach, it’s not the first time that Honda has turned to Kalex for help with their problematic current RC213V – and with its previous experiment delivering good results, it’s perhaps no surprise that pressure from six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez has now pushed them in this direction.
The team is able to lean on Kalex’s decade of experience as the dominant Moto2 manufacturer and Kalex has already supplied Honda with an aluminium swingarm last year as an alternative to the in-house carbon fibre design.
It was well-received, too, with Marquez using it almost exclusively since, including during the 2023 pre-season – in which the bulk of the actual in-house Honda developments were met with a lukewarm reaction from the star riders.
However, Marquez won’t be present at Jerez in order to give his own feedback on the frame, thanks to the ongoing complications from the injuries he sustained during the opening round of the 2023 season at Portimao.
Still sidelined for both last weekend’s race at Jerez and for the test, it’s a big blow to his hopes of rectifying many of their issues in the coming months – and, with new Repsol Honda signing Joan Mir still seemingly taking something of a back seat on development issues, it’s not yet entirely sure whether he’ll get his own chance later in the day to trial the part either.
