Espargaro becoming Honda MotoGP test rider is its first genuine improvement of 2024

On Tuesday, Honda finally confirmed Autosport’s initial reports that three-time grand prix winner Aleix Espargaro will become its MotoGP test rider in 2025.

Honda’s 2024 campaign continues to limp along without much reward following a Dutch Grand Prix in which is leading rider (Johann Zarco) was 13th and 42.767s away from race winner Francesco Bagnaia.

To boot, Zarco was 18s away from the rider ahead of him – Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, proving that the unofficial Japanese Cup to not be last of the manufacturers is easily going the way of the Iwata-based marque.

That’s not particularly surprising though. Yamaha brought a new engine to the Dutch GP aiming at returning the agility it has lost with its 2024 bike. While it did just that in the slow corners at Assen, Quartararo felt there wasn’t much of a gain through the fast turns.

But Yamaha tested several new engines in Valencia prior to the Dutch GP and one of those proved to be clearly better, with a race debut likely to happen soon.

With its concession benefits, Yamaha had both Quartararo and Alex Rins on track taking advantage of its ability to test in-season. In the three-week gap between the Italian GP and the Dutch GP, Honda did not. In fact, several of its riders spoke at Assen about not having a major update to the bike coming until possibly September time.

Yamaha’s efforts behind the scenes have yielded tangible gains, certainly relative to Honda.

Analysing both manufacturers’ qualifying form in 2024 over the first eight rounds, Honda has not gotten a rider into Q2 yet while Yamaha has done so four times. Honda’s average pole deficit stands at 1.199s compared to Yamaha’s 0.739s.

In races (looking solely at grands prix), Yamaha’s average gap to the winner is 23.533s. For Honda, the deficit is 29.828s. Considering Honda has two more bikes on the grid than Yamaha, the difference in form is striking and perfectly demonstrates just how far behind HRC is from where it needs to be.

“We are going fast but the others have improved a lot – it’s unbelievable,” said Joan Mir, who has crashed out of races six times in 2024, at Assen after falling out of the grand prix.

Neither Zarco nor Marini has successfully built a project from the ground up. Neither has Mir nor LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami

“How they [our rivals] accelerate out of the corners…