LCR Honda team boss Lucio Ceccinello reckons his eponymous outfit’s overall technical structure is now “closer” to that used by the factory Honda operation following changes made in 2022.
The Italian squad has attracted Suzuki refugee Alex Rins to replace Alex Marquez and join Takaaki Nakagami on its pair of RC213-V’s in 2023, the team looking to try and work towards the lofty competitiveness it enjoyed with Cal Crutchlow – the Brit scoring a total of three wins across the 2016-’18 period.
LCR’s podium drought drags all the way back to the 2019 Australian Grand Prix – in which Crutchlow finished second – with a trio of fourth-place runs courtesy of Nakagami and Marquez its best since, the team’s cause not helped by a tricky and uncompetitive RC213-V over the past couple of terms.
Ceccinello explained to Austrian publication Speedweek that LCR has worked hard to further enhance its technical structure to try and maximise the squad’s opportunities going forward despite its relative lack of resources compared to Honda official operation, in which Rins’ ex-Suzuki team-mate has landed.
The seven-time 125cc world championship race winner revealed that technical director Beefy Bourguignon now solely oversees both sides of the garage to ensure the team can move forward as a whole more effectively to try and move closer to the official Honda squad, rather than operating as effectively two different teams as before.
“Of course we discussed with (Alex) Rins that he has gotten used to the advantages of a factory team in the six years with his previous manufacturer,” said Cecchinello.
“Now he rides in a satellite team, albeit on a factory bike, but Alex Rins is fair enough and intelligent enough to understand that he’s faced with a different situation now.
“But that doesn’t mean we don’t make every effort to support it, he may have seen by now that we work twice as many hours as normal workers employed in the factory.
“In addition, we improved our structures in 2022 as Beefy Bourguignon now acts as Technical Director for both drivers.
“He observes the two crew chiefs, Klaus Nöhles with Taka and David Garcia with Alex Rins, so this definitely gives us a much stronger structure in the box and therefore we are now closer to the factory team.”
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