Rins: “I don’t want to make the Honda a Suzuki”, still without ‘base set-up’
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Rins closed out the 2022 season as one of the most in-form MotoGP riders after claiming two wins from the final three races.However, with Honda’s struggles of the past few seasons, which seem to be continuing during pre-season albeit not to the level of which they struggled in 2021 and 22, Rins is keen avoid turning his new bike into a similar version of the GSX-RR. Maverick Vinales: ‘The way I controlled the spin was excellent’ – main threat to Ducati?Ducati urge caution: “Bagnaia told us one weak point, Bastianini said the same…””I don’t want to make the Honda into a Suzuki,” said Rins after the second day of the Sepang test. “The first day comparing the data and comparing the other riders I was a bit slow in the fast corners or during a lot of metres. “Now, it’s much better. What we need to improve from my side – when I saw some videos of me comparing another rider is that we have a lot of movement on the brakes at the rear of the bike.”Despite needing to make improvements aboard the LCR Honda in order to replicate his success in the final few races last season, Rins stated he’s happy with the level of progression that’s been shown.Rins added: “More-or-less the feeling with the bike is good. I’m feeling good on the brakes, feeling good on the middle of the corner, exiting, but still we are far away from the fastest guy. But we are on a good way.”Sprint simulation half a second off Marini – will Ducati dominate MotoGP in 2023?Ducati topped all three days of the Sepang MotoGP Test, which included doing so with three different riders. Related Joan Mir: ‘We are struggling, far’, Alex Rins ‘felt something different’ What to expect from the official Sepang MotoGP TestHonda on the other hand were very far away from topping the leaderboard – Marc Marquez was the quickest of its four riders on two of the three days – Rins was top Honda on day two, although neither got within four tenths of the quickest time on any occasion. Given the prowess shown by Ducati, especially over one lap in recent times, it’s no surprise that time is needed for Honda to match their level of performance, however, it also appears as though the new Sprint race format could be a challenge.Rins did a Sprint simulation during the final day and was around 0.5s down on Luca Marini, on average, as the Italian ended the test fastest. “I don’t have a lot of kilometres with this bike but I can feel good things, some bad things and some things to improve,” said Rins at the close of play. “Also, we did a sprint race simulation. “We were comparing against Marini and he was at the same time doing the sprint simulation. We were 0.5s slower compared to him in race pace. “We still haven’t got a clear base set-up. After the sprint simulation and the fastest lap time [time attack] we tried a different electronics [package] and I felt more confidence. But there is still a lot of work to do.”
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