Honda “has to change our way of thinking” to end MotoGP slump

The Japanese manufacturer has scored just 85 points in the constructors’ championship so far in 2022 after 11 races, mustering just a single podium courtesy of Pol Espargaro’s third place in Qatar.

Since then, its best result has been a fourth for Marc Marquez at Jerez, with the six-time world champion still its top rider in the standings despite missing the past three races due to a fourth major operation on the right arm he badly broke in 2020.

Marquez, who likes 13th on 60 points, has been replaced by test rider Stefan Bradl, who is likely to see out the season while Marquez continues his recovery.

PLUS: The human importance of Marquez’s latest enforced MotoGP absence

Honda overhauled its RC213V for 2022 to improve the rear traction issues which plagued it in previous years, but has seemingly made little progress, while also making the bike harder to anticipate on the front-end.

So bad have Honda’s struggles been in 2022 that in Germany it registered its first pointless result since it boycotted the 1982 French Grand Prix.

Speaking ahead of the summer break, Puig concedes that Honda is “clearly not competitive enough” and says it must change its approach to return to winning ways.

“Well, it’s not a good season for us and there’s nothing to go more deep in the situation,” he said.

“We are clearly not competitive and we have to improve. This is what we’re trying to do.

“You can say it in many different ways, giving a long explanation, but the truth is that we must improve, and we have to change our procedures.

“This is what we are trying to do. In the history of Honda, we’ve had more good moments than bad moments, results wise. But now we are in a bad one, so now we have to fix it.

“The history of Honda is they never give up. We can take this time or that time or that time, we will get there.

“But we probably have to change a little bit our way of thinking, and the key point is don’t give up in the chase, in the will to find the better solutions.”

In terms of its rider line-up, Honda will go in a new direction in 2023 as it gets set to shelve Espargaro and both LCR riders – Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami.

Marquez, who will move to Gresini Ducati, will be replaced by Suzuki’s Alex Rins – which has yet to be officially confirmed – while 2020 world champion Joan Mir is set to take Espargaro’s place at the factory…