“Nothing lost” for Honda despite MotoGP concession change

Luca Marini says Honda has lost “nothing” by upgrading its MotoGP concessions status at the Valencia Grand Prix.

Marini’s seventh place scored him precisely the nine point Honda required in Valencia to be assured of their promotion from category D to category C concessions for 2026.

It means the Japanese factory will no longer be able to change engine specifications mid-season, will have reduced capacity to change mid-season its aerodynamic package, and will have less tyres for testing.

But Marini is confident that “nothing” is lost for Honda with this change.

“Yesterday and the past days I said ‘It’s possible’,” Luca Marini said after the race.

“I knew it.”

He added: “Nothing lost for me. For me, it’s only a big step and it was the target since the beginning of the season and fantastic to achieve it at the end in the last race, with myself.

“Really happy. I saw all the people in the garage super-happy, all the side of Joan [Mir], the LCR team, my guys obviously, but also the test team – and all the Japanese also – because, at the end, we are here but there are people’s families in this world and it’s fantastic that we achieved this target for the important [thing] it is, but also for the people that now can have a little bit more time at home with their family. 

“We are super-close now. We need just to use well all the resources that we have, use well all the tyres – that we have less. 

“So, with a good plan, we can handle it even without concessions and it will be fantastic to improve the bike from next year.”

“Satisfying” end after “nightmare” start in Valencia

Although Marini’s final result was something to be pleased about, his weekend started poorly in Valencia, with a lack of speed on Friday and Saturday that left him 13th on the grid for both races.

The Honda HRC Castrol rider said that the recovery itself was “satisfying” and that his struggles early in the weekend were also to do with the soft-compound rear tyre.

“Very satisfying,” Marini said of his Valencia MotoGP weekend.

“It was really a nightmare the beginning of this weekend, but especially with the soft [compound rear tyre]. 

“Even since FP1, when I tried again the medium [compound rear tyre] I said ‘Guys, the medium is the correct tyre for our bike or the [asphalt], I don’t know, but with the soft I cannot go, I cannot feel the tyre working well’. 

“So, I was pretty comfortable that it was a good tyre for me, for us, and, in fact, with our bike it worked very well and I could manage better the spin and the behaviour of the rear tyre in all the accelerations. 

“Since lap one, I needed to manage a lot with the throttle because we knew that arriving until the end of the race was difficult for everybody and it worked. 

“So, really happy also because my crew did a fantastic job, they improved a lot the bike during the weekend. 

“We changed many things because when you are struggling you need to change, and in the end I arrived in the race with the best compromise. 

“When everything is going like this, fantastic, so thank you to my crew because they did a fantastic job.”