Honda has opted for some changes within the factory box. Some historical figures will no longer be in the paddock.
HRC has promised Marc Marquez steps forward on the 2023 version of the RC213V, but in reality much more profound changes are taking place within the organization chart of the Repsol Honda team. After three disappointing seasons, marked by long periods of rest for the champion from Cervera and only three victories, all concentrated in the 2021 season alone, the Japanese manufacturer must reverse course.
Waiting to know the next evolution of the bike in the 2023 preseason, the Spanish Motorsport site announces that Ramon Aurin will be replaced by Giacomo Guidotti who will move to the factory team to support Joan Mir as a track engineer. Alongside Taka Nakagami will be Klaus Nöhles, who replaces Guidotti in LCR Honda. After the last test in Valencia, the manufacturer of the golden wing immediately got to work not only on the data collected by Marc Marquez and the other riders, but also on the internal restructuring of the team.
An Italian technician in the Honda factory box
From the 2023 season James Guidotti, brother of Francesco Guidotti (KTM team manager) will make his debut in the official box together with the Majorcan champion Joan Mir. Guidotti, until now had been Takaaki Nakagami’s track engineer in the garage Lucio Cecchinello’s LCR Honda. A line-up change to allow the former Suzuki rider to make his debut on the RC-V in the best possible way. The former German pilot Klaus Noehles he has been working in the Honda test team for three years and was already present alongside Taka Nakagami at the Valencia Irta test on 8 November.
With regard to Ramon Aurin, with many years of experience in Honda, working as an engineer alongside Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and more recently Pol Espargaró, will occupy the position of technical manager of the test team. No other changes are foreseen between the two Honda garages. Marc Marquez will continue to work together with his historic and highly trusted crew chief Santi HernandezAlex Rins will be joined by Christophe Bourguignon, who has worked with Alex Marquez in recent years.
Shinichi Kokubu will once again be the project leader of the new RC213V, accompanied by Tetsuhiro Kuwata, who will keep the position of general manager of HRC. It won’t be in the project Takeo Yakoyama, until now technical director, who will stop being present on the circuits to commit himself to a job in the Tokyo factory. The latter change had already been announced in recent months. Will it be enough to bring Honda back to its prestige levels?
