Ken Kawauchi was one of the keys to the success at Suzuki on its return to MotoGP from 2015 and, together with Davide Brivio, he took charge of the technical side up until the Japanese manufacturer quit the series at the end of 2022.
Alex Rins joined Suzuki on his MotoGP debut in 2017 and remained part of the team until its racing division was closed last year.
Both Rins and Kawauchi found refuge at Honda, Rins joining satellite squad LCR while Kawauchi became HRC technical manager and replaced Takeo Yokoyama.
Since his first ride on the RC213V at the Valencia test last November and up until his move to Yamaha in 2024 was announced in the build-up the British Grand Prix, the Spaniard had been calling for more attention from Honda, who he feels have not been as supportive as they could have been, despite its current crisis.
It was thought Kawauchi’s presence in the senior Honda ranks would have helped in that regard, but Rins said that was far from the case.
"My relationship with Ken so far has been super different to what it was at Suzuki, and very different to what I expected. I don't know if it's been on Ken's side or Honda's side, but the communication has been super poor," Rins said on Autosport sister site es.motorsport.com's Por Orejas podcast.
"I was expecting the same thing you were expecting. That, coming from Suzuki, where we were together for many years, at Honda we would also talk, we would meet. It was not at all what I thought."
Source: Autosport