The Suzuki ‘education’ that has allowed Rins to be Honda’s MotoGP leader

In what has been a difficult start to the 2023 season for Honda, Rins ended the Japanese marque’s victory drought when he won last week’s Americas Grand Prix.

It capped off a weekend in which Rins was also second in the sprint contest, and has vaulted him to third in the standings – 40 points clear of the next-best Honda, LCR team-mate Takaaki Nakagami, in 17th.

While Rins has had his complaints about the RC213V, he has been the only Honda rider to have generally given a positive outlook about the bike, telling Autosport’s podcast last December that he didn’t feel the Honda was as bad a bike as people say.

These comments continued in Austin last week when he felt pre-weekend that Honda was not utilising his feedback enough to develop the bike.

Analysing Rins’ win, Cazeaux – who did not follow Rins from Suzuki to Honda, and has returned to working with Maverick Vinales at Aprilia for 2023 – said: “About Alex’s talent, I don’t think anyone can have many doubts and I’m not going to discover them now either.

“He is a very classy rider. I think that what has led Alex to be living this moment with Honda is that, at Suzuki, we educated him to think about himself and not so much about the bike.

“In recent times, I have heard him say that the bike is not so bad, that it has potential and I think that allows him to remain calm, not lose concentration with variables that he cannot control.”

Rins’ victory in the Americas GP ended a barren period for Honda dating back to the 2021 Emilia Romagna GP, after which HRC registered its second winless campaign in three years.

His win also marked the first LCR since the 2018 Argentina GP, which was coincidentally the last time a Honda rider who wasn’t Marc Marquez stood on the top step of the podium for the marque.