Valencia exposes Honda MotoGP weakness: “If we could not improve that all year…”

The Circuit Ricardo Tormo that hosts the Valencia MotoGP is one that has come to expose the weaknesses of Honda’s MotoGP bike, Joan Mir has explained.

Mir was able to make the top-10 in Practice, finishing ninth-fastest, but was the only Honda rider to make it directly into Q2 on Friday at the final MotoGP round of 2025 in Valencia.

The Spanish rider said that track conditions made things more difficult for HRC, the RC213V struggling to work in the low-grip conditions that presented themselves in Valencia.

“It was difficult because of the conditions: here in Valencia, always when we arrive here the conditions can be very cold, this year not especially but for some reason the track is not as grippy as I remember,” Joan Mir explained, speaking after Practice on Friday in Valencia.

“Dirty, more white, also – the track is a more grey colour and before it was more black, the asphalt was in a better condition. 

“The grip was not very good for any of us, and normally with low-grip conditions we know that we struggle more and that’s a bit the reality. The struggle was real, but we are in Q2.”

The lack of grip also exposes Honda’s lack of mid-corner speed at the moment – something especially important at Valencia where there are several corners where riders are using a lot of lean angle while on the throttle.

“As a rider, you can control braking, you can control the lines, you can control everything, but [not the grip],” Mir said.

“Long corners are the ones that we lose time compared to the others, it’s our weak point at the moment with this bike and we know that every time we have these corners that are long, keeping speed and turning with throttle, we lose. 

“We are three-tenths behind and I am sure that all of those tenths are in the final corner, for example, and in turn eight, also. 

“So, let’s try to improve the bike a bit tomorrow [Saturday], but if we could not improve that thing in all the year it will be difficult to improve it tomorrow. But, a little bit, I think we can.”

Mir believes there is a chance the grip will improve this weekend as the track becomes more used, but he doesn’t expect a lot of grip to come from the track.

“I expect to get a bit better grip during tomorrow and [onwards],” the Honda HRC Castrol rider said.

“But I don’t expect huge grip. 

“Probably better grip conditions can help us to have a more competitive bike, naturally, but we have to do something. 

“In the last races, I don’t touch so much the bike, and the bike more or less is working well everywhere, but here I think we need to modify something.”

Marini: "We struggled so much today"

Luca Marini echoed his teammate’s thoughts,and added that the bike is more difficult to ride at Valencia now than it was two years ago when he rode it for the first time in the 2023 post-race test.

“In general, in the past, it was a track that was very good for Honda,” Marini said after Practice.

“But, now, the grip has totally changed compared to two years ago and now it’s really difficult to ride the bike – in entry, in exit, the grip level is zero. 

“We struggled so much today [Friday], we didn’t expect this. 

“We need to improve the bike for tomorrow morning because still we have an opportunity.

“But I remember that it was much better riding the bike here in the past; now everything comes more difficult.”

Marini agreed with Mir that the track conditions were not helping things.

“The temperature today was fantastic, was perfect,” he said.

“Just the [asphalt], I don’t know if it’s for the flood, for the rain, for the sand – it was this morning full of sand and was a little bit tricky for this.

“But this is the condition for everybody so we have to try to adapt on this and try to improve. 

“I think tomorrow morning everything will be better, and we will try to improve our lap times.”

The lack of grip was something unexpected by Honda, Marini added: “The track is completely another level compared to the past years and it’s a little bit of a surprise for us – we didn’t expect it. 

“So, sideways a lot in entry, also in acceleration it’s easy to break the grip and miss something in acceleration. 

“So, in the time attack we are not so competitive, but tomorrow morning we have a chance to improve the bike in FP2 to try some solution. For sure, we will improve.”