Camier: Super concessions will ‘help us’, but not the ‘main difference we need’

Camier, who is yet to see Team HRC claim a WorldSBK victory since becoming the Team Manager in 2021, believes improvements made during pre-season should bring them closer to the top three manufacturers.

However, a gap in performance clearly remains between the ‘second group’ that Lecuona referred to it as, and last season’s top three riders - now a quartet after Michael Ruben Rinaldi has seemingly joined the fight at the front. 

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A deficit of over one second separated Lecuona from Toprak Razgatlioglu at the two day Jerez test, while Alvaro Bautista held a seven tenth advantage over Lecuona in Portimao.

For that reason Camier is not jumping the gun regarding what is possible for the Japanese manufacturer, despite super concessions being at their disposal. 

"I think the super concession that we got is to give us more adjustment; I think it’ll help us overall but I don’t think it’ll be the main difference that we need that all of a sudden, we’ll be fighting for race wins," said the ex-Superbike rider. 

"There’re so many factors that have to be perfect for you to be at that point. We are still young in this championship, so we need a little bit more time to get the package exactly correct for fighting for a title. 

"I think in the right time and right place, we can fight for podiums and our goal is to make another step this year and keep improving the bike that we have. We want to see a step."

With that said, Honda have been making steady improvements since returning to the series as a full factory outfit in 2020.

Their consistent progression should have seen them finish ahead of BMW last season, however, an injury to Lecuona saw him miss the final six races, thus handing the advantage back to BMW riders.

Should Honda continue their upward trajectory, then fighting for podiums based on pure pace could begin to take place, whether that’s at the start of the season or by the end of it. 

Discussing which areas have been improved the most, Camier said: "There’re lots of small things we’ve improved since last year, such as having torque in the right places with the engine and a bit more on acceleration. 

"We’ve made a small step with electronics which should help us over race distance, which is something that if you have good enough hearing, you’ll understand what it is on the side of the track! 

"There’re several items, such as swingarms as we’ve discussed before and we’ll have some other upgrades on that this year. 

"Let’s see if we can bridge the gap and arrive to the lead group and also see if the parts that have come from Japan will allow us to do that earlier in the year. When we arrive to Europe, we’ll start to understand our position."