Once the top dog in MotoGP, Honda has slowly plummeted down the pecking order, ending the last two seasons last in the manufacturers' standings.
Marc Marquez, the rider with which it built its current empire in MotoGP, broke his contract with HRC at the end of last year to switch to a satellite Ducati, while Alex Rins also left the Japanese marque after a single season to move to Yamaha.
Honda’s philosophy and conservative approach to bike development had been identified as the main reason as to why the RC213V is no longer competitive against the bikes of its European rivals, or even the M1 from Yamaha.
It wasn’t until the second half of last year that Honda started to overhaul its operations, with perhaps the biggest change being the appointment of Shin Sato as the new technical director to replace Shinichi Kokubu.
Asked if he could feel any difference in the way Honda operates now that is adopting a more European-style approach, Mir said: “It's true that last year they made a lot of changes in people, changed [to] a little bit different way to do things, and we start to see the results now. So something changed there.
“They will show really if they [have made a] change if they bring something more from here to Qatar.
“But it's true that from Misano last year when we tried the first prototype of 2024 to the bike that we tried in Valencia, they made a huge improvement. They improved the bike a lot and they changed a lot of things.
Source: Autosport