At the fourth round of the year, Alberto Puig was able to join Honda for the first time in the 2025 MotoGP season – after undergoing surgery on the leg he injured three decades ago.
The improvement in results has been clear in this initial phase – Honda is second in the constructors’ championship, has always had at least one rider in the top ten of the main races, and in Qatar, Johann Zarco (Castrol Honda LCR) finished fourth not far from the podium.
In an interview with DAZN ES, Puig didn’t deny the improvement, but revealed that it wasn’t the result of significant changes to the bike – on the contrary, small tweaks that had a good effect:
– There was an improvement and it’s noticeable in the riders. They are happier and much closer than they were last year. In 2024 they had quite a few problems. The bike, while not radically different from last year’s, is better. We made small changes, but the bike responded to them very well, and in the end that shows in the rider, in the feeling, the throttle response, the first touch of the gas… The rider feels it much more, it’s more linear and, whether you like it or not, with these bikes that helps you understand much more quickly how to control it.
Top speed continues to be a significant gap, but there are other strengths, Puig noted: ‘Although the bike isn’t very fast, because that’s been seen and it’s something that’s known, sometimes with things like this the bike can help you quite a bit. And that’s what’s happening now’.