Former Suzuki Ken KawauchiSigned by Honda Racing Corporation as the new technical manager, made his debut this week in private testing at the little-used Jerez circuit due to the cold weather. According to tester Stefan Bradl, Michelin could hardly draw any conclusions about the new parts because he brought them the same compound he brought to his GP in May at 20C higher temperatures. , risking it all in the Sepang shakedown. Testers he from February 5th to he’s from February 7th, official driver testing from he’s February 10th to he’s from February 12th.

Talk to the official website of the championship motogp.com Livio Suppo, who knows Honda well after serving as team manager for the Suzuki team in 2022 and spending seven years with Honda as team manager for Repsol Honda from 2013 to 2017, He talks about the vision Kawauchi can bring to Honda in 2023 and the importance of Kokubo returning as project leader.

Suppo said in this interview, “Ken was Suzuki’s technical director, which meant that every team technician had to send him a report after each practice session and each race. Having led the meeting, Ken is very good at gathering information and then transferring it to the factory.”

“Especially for Japanese manufacturers, it is not easy to convey information from the circuit to the factory and from the factory to the circuit. People trust people in the factory and vice versa, and if they don’t share the same ideas, it’s a disaster for the development of the bike.”

“Knowing that gives Ken two big advantages. First, he has proven to be very good at what he does. It’s about having a very good personality, and I think empathy in this kind of work is very important because it’s impossible for a truck engineer.The factory drivers and the drivers always share the same vision. People in the truck can miss what the factory understands and vice versa. So empathy and the ability to work with both groups is very important and I think Ken has it I’m sorry,” emphasizes Livio.

don’t make new bikes

“I don’t think Ken’s role is to build a new bike. I think it will be the same one that he had at Suzuki and I think he will do a very good job. , and this is very important. I say same direction, not the right direction, because there is a big difference. If people are working in opposite directions, no one knows what is right and what is wrong. Yes, and no one knows whose fault it is. “

He doesn’t understand what happened to Honda in 2022

“Every rider in the paddock thinks Honda is not that good, right? Even Pol.Espargaro told the media that he could fight with this bike and that he was on the right track.But what happened next?In Qatar How can the bike go on after the podium – and Pol had a chance to win.But he pushed too much in the beginning and had no tires at the end to finish in the top 10 halfway through the season It’s very strange. Honestly, it’s almost impossible to understand what happened last year.”

Evaluate Mr. Kokubo’s return

Another novelty for HRC 2023 is the return of Shinichi Kokubo, who Suppo knows well, as Honda development lead. , for example, when we went to 1000cc, they were building a strong bike, so Casey (Stoner), Dani (Pedrosa) and Cal (Crutchlow) were all fast.HRC) were there and they were all on the same page. As a friend of Ken and Kokubo, I hope they can rescue this ship, which is currently in a storm, in a very difficult time.