Honda’s much talked about Kalex chassis made its debut in a Grand Prix weekend at the French GP. After trying it on the Friday morning, both Marc Marquez and Repsol Honda Team teammate Joan Mir continued to use it throughout the weekend, including in the Tissot Sprint and GP race. So what does that tell us?
We’ll start on the Friday, where both Marquez and Mir began MotoGP™ Practice 1 with their regular chassis before then switching over to the Kalex one and trying it out for size. The question we all wanted to know the answer to was: would the Kalex chassis provide a big change?
At the end of Friday both Marquez and Mir offered some interesting comments when chatting to the media, with the latter mentioning that “he could feel a bit better” with the Kalex chassis and he was “able to ride more comfortable but it’s quite different.” That difference is always going to be trickier for the #36 as he’s still getting used to how a V4 should be raced, having made the switch from Suzuki’s inline-four for 2023. On the other hand, Marquez has been riding V4s his whole premier class career, so the #93 was able to get stuck into the details a little more straight away.
“It's another step in some areas in this circuit, but we need more steps. It's not the only step we need. We need more steps. We are still losing too much, we are [trying] too much on the brakes, because we are losing in acceleration and on the straight. So we are on the brakes a lot. For that reason we are pushing a lot the front,” said Marquez in Le Mans.
Straight away, it appeared that while the Kalex chassis could be a step in the right direction, there’s still plenty more that Honda need to bring them up to the level they’re craving. That being said, it was no real surprise that both Marquez and Mir ran the Kalex chassis throughout Saturday.
On Saturday evening, Marquez seemed quite positive overall about what he had learned from the Kalex chassis, with his main feedback being that it allowed for more margin of error with the front end of his RC213V.
“It looks like with the Kalex [chassis] you need to adapt the riding style a bit, you need to go fast into the corner, but it's not necessary to push... you can do some more mistakes. You can go wide, come back. With the other one [standard Honda chassis], it's so critical, and it's so difficult to understand the front tyre. But with this one [Kalex chassis] it looks like you have more warning.”
However, while the eight-time World Champion talked up the better front end feeling, he also said that he preferred his standard chassis in the middle of the corner, noting that it had better turning performance.
On the other side of the garage, after finishing P14 in the Sprint, this is what Mir had to say about the Kalex chassis.
“I had some trouble to really stop the bike and hold the line and then I couldn't… What I want to do, I can't do it. I can’t do it. I think that at the moment the team don't understand what I need to be strong. Also, I don't understand what I have to do to ride this bike in a better way and to perform.”
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It’s interesting that Mir mentions about not being able to hold the line. Does this confirm he also feels the same way regarding Marquez’s comments about the standard chassis having better turning? Probably.
On Sunday, it looked like Marquez managed to take another step forward with the Kalex chassis. Only a late Turn 7 crash stopped him from claiming a fantastic comeback podium. However, Marquez wasn’t getting carried away about the Kalex chassis post-race.
“I mean of course the chassis has a small difference, and it's a small help. But it's not the solution. Mir was using the chassis, and Mir is a World Champion, and you saw he was struggling, he was in the back, and he crashed again. So we need to change something for the future, to be more competitive, to be safer, because every year, the Honda riders are at the top of the crash rankings.”
More than anything this quote summed up exactly the step that the Kalex chassis has given Honda. Yes, it has given them a step forward and it has given them a great opportunity to now go away, study the data and come back with something that hopefully offers a big improvement. But as Marquez explains, it’s a small help and only a first step on what is still a very long road to get back to the top. The Spaniard also reiterated exactly where Honda are losing out to their rivals and just how much of a difference he’s making in limiting the other weaknesses.
“It's true that here is a bit better, because in the two main acceleration [zones], it's one of my riding styles’ strong points. I was picking up the bike a lot, and I control the gas really well, and for that reason we were not losing a lot. But in Sector 2 for example, where you are depending a lot on the grip of your bike, there I was losing a lot. But we didn't have more.”
One important thing to note regarding Mir was the progress he’d made throughout the weekend in terms of his pace. Another crash on Sunday was far from ideal, but his three laps before the crash were his best race laps all weekend. In addition, the lap before his crash was three and a half tenths quicker than his best Sprint lap.
“The important thing is that in the race, I think we found something,” said Mir. “I was able to do 1:32 lows until the crash, missing a bit the consistency to repeat it. But the speed was more or less there. Yesterday I was one second off the pace, and today two tenths from the top. So it's a huge step."
But more than that, Mir’s progression isn’t just about riding a chassis that works better. The bike is a total shift from what he’s used to and he’s still trying to figure out the basics of how to go fast on it and be comfortable at the same time.
“We modified a bit the geometry, trying to understand a bit what I need. And I was able to ride better. This was the step,” confirmed Mir to the media.
So then, a summary: Honda’s Kalex chassis. It’s provided the Japanese giants with a step forward, while it’s also allowed both riders to ride have more margin for error and ride in a more comfortable way.
Crucial steps forward, but it’s far from the finished article and that golden ticket that is going to propel them back into the realms of being the – or one of the – quickest bikes every weekend. It remains a tricky motorcycle to operate, something Mir pointed out.
“You are on a knife edge. More than physically, it's more mentally. Mentally it destroys you, because you have to be super, super precise, always fighting with the front, trying to not over try, because then it's worse. And it's a little bit difficult and completely different from the bike that I experienced before.”
Nevertheless, there does appear to be light at the end of the tunnel for Honda. Marquez boasted great speed straight away after a month and a half out of action, and Mir made a significant step forward on Sunday.