HRC executive vice president Shuhei Nakamoto has revealed that Honda will debut a brand new bike during this Monday's post-race test session at Mugello, Italy.
The new version of the RC213V was intended for the 2013 season, but has been brought forward in an attempt to finally cure the chatter and front-tyre stability problems that factory riders
Casey Stoner and
Dani Pedrosa have struggled with since the introduction of the latest generation of 'softer' Bridgestone tyres.
Pedrosa and Stoner are currently trailing Yamaha's
Jorge Lorenzo by 14 and 20-points respectively in the championship, which reaches its halfway point at Mugello on Sunday.
Nakamoto told
MotoGP.com: “Monday we will have a completely new machine. We will bring two, one for each rider.
“Originally this bike was next year's prototype, but we have to fix the [bike to cope with the] new tyre's construction. We decided that if the riders are happy, we will use this machine even for this year.”
Nakamoto confirmed that the new bike will have engine as well as chassis changes.
“And also we will bring a new specification engine. The basic specification is the same, but it has a little more power,” he said.
Lorenzo has won four races so far this year, Stoner three and Pedrosa one.
Free practice for the Italian Grand Prix starts on Friday morning.