Honda in no rush to upgrade new RCV1000R

Honda will not be rushed into an overhaul of its new production RCV1000R machine, despite pleas from the likes of Nicky Hayden and Scott Redding for more power.

Honda’s new Open class bike doesn’t feature pneumatic valve technology or a seamless shift gearbox like the Factory spec RC213V ridden by Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa.

But it is the lack of horsepower that has been the biggest complaint from the Aspar and Gresin teams that are running the new bike in 2014.

There has been a glaring 11mph speed gap on fast tracks like Sepang and Qatar and while Honda is committed to upgrading the RCV1000R, it won’t panic to rush out modifications.

With the first three races all flyaways, no new parts will be made available until the first European round in Jerez at the earliest, but HRC boss Livio Suppo told MCN: “We need to wait and see a bit more. We have been struggling a little bit to match our machine with the new Magneti Marelli software, so I don’t think we need to panic.

“We are going to keep an eye on it but it is a bit early to panic and say we must do something urgently. And I don’t think anybody was expecting to have a machine that was going to win races.”

Redding enjoyed an encouraging MotoGP debut in Qatar last weekend when he finished seventh to lead the RCV1000R quartet.