After a disastrous 2024, Honda Factory Team Manager Alberto Puig must shift gears for a comeback in 2025
There’s no dressing it up: 2024 was a slog for Honda, MotoGP’s most successful manufacturer. It finished fifth in the Constructor’s Championship while Johann Zarco, its highest placed rider, ended the year 17th overall. But changes are on the horizon. As well as expanding its test team to three riders, HRC signed Romano Albesiano, formerly of Aprilia, as its new Technical Director. AMCN sat down with Honda Factory Team Manager Alberto Puig to find out more.
How would you assess the 2024 season?
We cannot deny that it was really, really bad. The only thing a company like Honda can do when this situation happens is to keep on trying. And this is what we’re doing. We never give up. We’re still looking for solutions. In terms of results, it was really bad because we weren’t in the position we’re used to being in. To be honest, the last two or three years have been really difficult for us. Anyway, at (the) Misano (test in September) we started to find some direction. That was the work of the previous six months of mistakes. Now we cannot say we’re there – we’re still 1.2s away per lap, which is an eternity. But at least it gave us some hope. Then when you start to make some steps it’s like a chain reaction: people start to get motivated, riders start to believe. Let’s try to get the momentum and build it up a little bit more.
Have you seen a change in how the factory has worked and reacted in the past 12 months?
We made changes during the year. This is clear. We’ve made changes in the way we organise ourselves internally. When you do this, there is a final reaction. Still, we couldn’t see the final effect or result so much. But we have been moving things inside. We are also trying to apply new, I wouldn’t say strategies, but ways of proceeding that we are planning to implement and use for the upcoming years.
What did Honda see in Albesiano to offer him the position of Technical Director? And what can he bring to the role?
First of all, he has a lot of experience. He’s a completely established and high-ranked engineer in this environment from a skill point of view. From a personal point of view, I think his character can match really well with the Japanese culture because, from my understanding, he’s a calm guy who wants to analyse things. But he has enough experience in this paddock to make the steps the way they should be done. Of course, it will be a completely new environment for him because he’s always been working in Europe with Italians. The Japanese mentality and culture is different – they want to be more sure of things (before they’re brought to the race team). Finally, his approach and tempo are going to match that of our engineers. This is my wish and my belief.
It represents quite a big departure for Honda to put someone from outside the company and outside Japan into such a prominent position…
Well, in the past we also did some collaborations with other people. Honda has always been trying to search for technology, but in their own way. Now we decided to go like this. But it’s quite good. Nowadays in racing you need to be open to knowledge and different approaches. Formula 1 are the kings for this. They’re changing people (in teams) every year. I think MotoGP is now going in this direction and we also have no objections to going this way and understanding what’s outside our company.
Could Romano’s appointment open the door for other figures to come from other factories?
We already brought two guys from Aprilia – first of all the rider (Aleix Espargaro) for the test team, and then his crew chief (Antonio Jimenez). I mean, that’s not so bad. Then you have to see how things evolve through the year. When you bring someone, things happen. First of all, the priority is Romano gets involved and gets to know our Japanese leaders in the technical area to see how things go and what they decide to do.
We’ve seen Yamaha establish a European base to help communication and work flow between factory and race team. Could Honda follow suit?
We have nothing decided but it’s a possibility. In the past it’s something that happened in Formula 1, when we moved to England. We are open. Honda has the facilities in Spain for the operation side. We’re thinking of expanding in other areas. I cannot tell you this is going to happen in the short term but it’s a possibility.
Honda’s made significant changes to its test team. Along with three riders (Espargaro, Stefan Bradl and Takaaki Nakagami), Ken Kawauchi will be overseeing the operation…
Yes. We are going from one test rider to three. The company thought that to reinforce the test team with his knowledge and experience is something that can be useful. The test team is going to grow, so you also need to bring new faces. You can’t just have the same people working there because they’ll be on the limit.
Could Nakagami’s position as test rider help bridge the gap between the factory in Japan and the race team in Europe?
You know this happens in every team. When you’re based in Europe and you’re European there’s nothing to communicate. Your guys are there (in the factory). The Japanese factory teams, it’s more complicated. You have the main branch in Japan. Then you have 30 or 40 Europeans of all nationalities around Europe. All these people are highly qualified. But to be able to address all the info (from the track) and receive it back is not so easy. I’m talking from an engineering point of view. From a riding point of view, it’s different. As a rider you go on the bike, try it and then give your comments. The comments can be said in Japanese or English. But the real thing to try and improve here is the communication between both Europe and Japan – and not because it isn’t good, but because it’s difficult.
Will there be a completely new Honda RC213V for the start of the season?
I really don’t know yet. It’s difficult to say now how it will be. We’ll see. Probably in Thailand at the final test (12-13 February).
What’s a realistic target for the start of the season for Honda’s four riders?
If you ask me, we’ll be looking for improvement. And for me improvement would be to be capable of reducing the gap in the lap difference, which you’ll see at the end of the race. Now the difference is massive. This is what I want us to do in the first half of the season and then we’ll see how to keep going. The good thing about racing is it’s mathematical. You can see the real difference by a stopwatch.
Espargaro stands out at Jerez
HONDA’S MOTOGP contingent wasn’t massively impressed by what they tested in Barcelona, two days after the season finale in November, 2024. Joan Mir even asked, “How can I not be angry?” after feeling let down by a lack of new parts in the factory garage. Yet Mir and teammate Luca Marini, as well as LCR’s Zarco and new test rider Espargaro, were the only MotoGP riders on track at a Jerez test in the final week of November, where they continued work on establishing a development direction for 2025. Marini and Espargaro rode on the Tuesday, while Mir and Zarco were on track the following day. While Honda was reluctant to give too many details away regarding the test, and the riders names didn’t appear on the timing screens, it’s believed Espargaro was the fastest of the four at Jerez – no mean feat considering he’s spent the past eight seasons on Aprilia’s RS-GP, a wildly different bike to the RC213V. They continued working on the 2025 prototype, which hadn’t impressed Mir in Barcelona, while it appeared there was also a new chassis/swingarm to test across the two days.
