We’re on the last day of the final two-day test session that MotoGP teams are attending at the Spanish Jerez racetrack, before everyone goes home to enjoy a much-deserved vacation during the Winter break that’ll last until the end of January 2019.
With teams having limited track time for tests during the season, these post-season tests gain a bigger importance for teams to answer to riders needs, and one such rider is three-time MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo.
The Spaniard changed from Ducati to Honda, joining Marc Marquez at the Japanese factory team, and his arrival is already changing how Honda’s race division Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) works.
As we’ve seen during his time at Ducati, Lorenzo needs the team to build a race bike exactly to his specifications, so it suits his riding style, much smoother than most of his rivals. It took Ducati Corse a year and a half to give Lorenzo what he was asking for (a different shape fuel tank for the Desmosedici GP bike), and this season, when everyone thought Lorenzo wouldn’t be able to get the needed results, he got what he asked for and the results started to appear like it was magic.
Honda and HRC, usually take a lot of time before they apply on their bikes something new. Like good Japanese they are, if the team or rider asks for something, that “something” will be tested a lot before being given the OK to be used on a MotoGP race, and the test procedure takes too long sometimes.
But something has changed with Lorenzo joining the HRC family.
Like with Ducati, Jorge Lorenzo asked Honda for a different shape fuel tank for his new RC213V prototype, and in a matter of a week’s time, HRC has built that special fuel tank in Japan and send it in time for the rider to use on the Jerez test session that’s happening right now.
Honda gave Lorenzo two versions of the fuel tank to try out, besides a wider seat, different from the one used by Marc Marquez on his bike. In Jerez, on the first day of testing, Lorenzo managed to lead the time sheet for most of the day, ending day 1 in seventh, almost eight tenths behind Danilo Petrucci and just two tenths from MotoGP champion Marc Marquez.
With Honda willing to change how it answers riders demands, will we see Jorge Lorenzo threaten Marc Marquez position within the Repsol Honda team?
Only time will answer this question, but the first indications show Lorenzo is adapting fast to Honda, and that is a problem for his rivals and his teammate Marc Marquez.
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