This morning the Repsol Honda officially unveiled their new team livery and line-up for the upcoming season and here are some much better studio images of the 2013 RC213V, along with what HRC boss Shuhei Nakamoto had to say about the team’s riders, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez, also with quotes from the two Spaniards and a highlight video of the presentation held at Campus Repsol in Madrid.
“In 2013 we will again have a very strong team - Dani comes into this season after a fantastic 2012 and with new motivation, Marc is a great talent and I’m sure it won’t be long before we see him on the podium. I am excited about the new structure and everyone at HRC will continue to work hard in the bike’s development to give both our riders the best chance of victory,” said HRC Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto.
The Japanese manager talking about Marc Marquez - whom he believes can score a podium from the first round of the season - said, “Everybody knows a fast rider is fast from the beginning, but anyway Marquez is a rookie and has to learn lot about MotoGP, especially in the tyre management area. To make one good lap time is not so difficult for him, because he has very good times, but he needs a little experience to manage the tyre and maintain the lap time. But I believe even at round one, he has the possibility to finish on the podium.”
And regarding veteran Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa he added, “2012 was a good season, but from Honda’s point of view we struggled with the minimum weight regulations that changed shortly before the season started… Especially for Dani. A 4kg increase is a big difference for Dani, but in the second half of last season Dani was so strong. He won seven races including in the rain at Sepang. So Dani is still improving as a rider. We believe we can continue from last year’s results and we believe we have a big chance to win the championship this year.”
“I am very happy to have been here at Campus Repsol today, and to have been the one unveiling the bike and its new livery. We had run with the old design for a long time and I think that now is a good moment for a change. This year’s bike has a fresh touch to it, which can give us a boost at the races. I hope the fans like it too. I’m starting this preseason really keen, as at the Valencia test after the last race of 2012 we had so much rain that we couldn’t do much. I can’t wait to get to Malaysia and have a few days to put the bike through its paces, enjoy myself and see which parts we are going to use for the opening race,” said Dani Pedrosa, who has been with Respol Honda since his debut in MotoGP in 2006.
Marc Marquez commented, “I have really been looking forward to this moment. I am very happy to have presented the new colour scheme for my move up from Moto2 to MotoGP. Seeing the bike painted with the Repsol and HRC logos makes you feel very satisfied with this new step forward —it makes you realise what a dream-come-true it is. I’m like a kid with new shoes! I enjoyed the atmosphere of the presentation a lot, and I was able to see that the press attention for MotoGP is light years ahead of that for Moto2. We’ll adapt to this, little-by-little. In the end, the important thing is what happens on the track, so I can’t wait for the Malaysia tests to start. I think that it was a very positive initiative to broadcast the presentation online, because I’m sure lots of fans would have liked to have attended this event. I hope that they enjoyed it a lot.”
from TWOWHEELSBLOG
