WorldSBK: Honda’s woes not just a MotoGP issue, “we don’t understand anything” - Iker Lecuona
Iker Lecuona remains confused by Honda’s lack of performance in WorldSBK following another disastrous weekend at Donington Park.
While both Lecuona and Xavi Vierge have had one or more top five finishes this season, a lack of consistency and overall pace compared to the fastest teams and riders in WorldSBK has again left Honda needing to do a lot more.
As is the case in MotoGP, Honda have become accustomed to finishing at the lower end of the top ten, although in WorldSBK there hasn’t been the fall from grace that has occurred in Grand Prix.
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Still, Honda are recognised as one of the biggest manufacturers, if not the biggest and their performance are doing little to suggest such a title.
Lecuona, who again looked out of sorts last weekend, said this to WorldSBK.com: "I don’t want to say anything in general. I struggled. We don’t know why.
"In Race 1 when I crashed, I didn’t do anything. Everything was the same but, at the end of the race with the used tyre, I crashed. I didn’t do anything special.
"It’s not an easy moment for us. We struggled a lot. We don’t understand anything. It’s not the best way. On Sunday, we tried different things.
"In the morning, it worked. In the afternoon, my start was fine but the first lap, with the new base, I couldn’t have a good warm up on the rear tyre so I almost crashed at Turn 7. I fell behind Tito.
"My pace was really good, really strong in the mid 1’27s or lower. We made a small step. Now we need to understand why and what changed on the bike and why we struggled like this."
For Vierge, the Spaniard failed to record a single top ten result last weekend, which comes off the back of a good round in Misano where he claimed P5 in Race 2.
"Of course this weekend was a tough one for us, and we didn’t expect to struggle so much here really," stated Vierge.
"As always, me and the team worked very hard to try and achieve the maximum possible in every session.
"We were unable to score points on Sunday - in the Superpole Race we were not fast enough and in Race 2 we made a good start and were lying mid-pack but unfortunately, we had a small problem that forced me to pit.
"It’s the first time it’s happened to be fair, and better for it to happen in a race where we were struggling anyway rather than during a weekend where we’re fighting for a strong result."
