Lorenzo’s Honda Japan visit to solve problems – Puig

Repsol Honda team manager Alberto Puig says Jorge Lorenzo’s trip to HRC’s headquarters in Japan has been set up to give him direct communication with the factory technicians as it looks to solve his riding position and feeling with the RC213V.

While Lorenzo has shown flashes of promise since his move to the factory Honda squad this winter, the five-time world champion has failed to finish a race inside the top 10 this season.

With the Spanish rider continuing to struggle to find a comfortable feeling on the Honda, he is visiting HRC’s Asaka headquarters in Japan to work with factory engineers to find solutions to his problems.

After trying different seat specifications with his Honda at the start of the season, Lorenzo reverted to the “standard” race seat during the French MotoGP last month.

“We have decided to try improving Jorge’s ergonomics problems by organising a trip to Japan. We thought it was a good idea to talk directly with the engineers and to analyse more deeply the problems he is having, trying to get a better position for him on the bike,” Puig explained.

“Jorge is still struggling; he needs to find the compromise with the bike and has to keep working.

“He is staying focused and remaining motivated and this is important. It was also important to check the improvements we have made to our machine on a Ducati track [Mugello], which is a circuit all about top speed and power.”

Lorenzo claimed victory for Ducati at Mugello 12 months ago but was off the pace throughout the Italian MotoGP last weekend. The Spanish rider qualified down in 17th place before climbing the order to finish the race in 13th place – almost 21 seconds behind race-winner Danilo Petrucci.

Reflecting on his race, Lorenzo conceded changes made to his RC213V failed to pay off and left him still searching for answers.

“I didn’t have the pace and wasn’t as comfortable on the bike to be more competitive,” Lorenzo said. “We made a change in the warm-up and it improved some areas. Not better or worse than we expected but neither myself nor Honda give up on making progress and finding a solution together.

“Now I will go to Japan to work with Honda on some improvements to come back stronger.”

Following his HRC Japan visit, Lorenzo will head to his home round, the Catalan MotoGP, with the hope of finding breakthroughs. The Circuit de Catalunya also hosts a one-day post-race test where further developments and setup changes are expected to be trialled by Lorenzo and Repsol Honda.