Honda’s progress in the 2025 MotoGP season was “clear”, says Alberto Puig, but the Japanese factory needs greater consistency in its 2026 performances.

Honda found itself in similar difficulties to 2024 at the beginning of this year, with Joan Mir crashing out of five of the opening six races and Luca Marini floating on the fringes of the top-10.

A victory for Johann Zarco in the Le Mans rain was a clear high point early on, but the meaningful progress was made evident after the summer break, progress highlighted by Joan Mir’s front row qualifying and podium finish in Japan, and his second podium of the year at the Malaysian MotoGP.

The performance in the second half of the year ultimately resulted in Honda climbing from category D to category C concessions, sealed with a seventh place for Marini at Valencia.

“It was a really working hard year, but we made some progress – this is, I think, clear,” Alberto Puig told MotoGP.com.

“Not there yet, but, compared to the past years, I think this is the year that we made the most advantage of the situation, of the concessions, of the time that we developed more the bike.

“In the beginning of the year, we were really not at the same point that we are at now, the bike was not so developed, but we knew that after the summer break we could make some, let’s say, serious steps, and this happened.

“The riders started to perform, and things have been much better since July, August.”

If there is one thing Honda has improved above all else, it’s the engine, in Puig’s opinion.

“Normally, a bike is many things, but if you ask me personally I think we made a big improvement in the engine,” he said.

“In this class, if you don’t have speed, it’s quite complicated to even try to overtake. 

“We gave the guys some horsepower, and I think they really appreciate it!”

Looking to 2026, Puig says Honda is in search of greater consistency in its performance, having been able to challenge for the podium towards the end of 2025 but not in all races in the final part of the season.

“There have been good moments,” he said, “we cannot forget about the victory of Johann Zarco in Le Mans, which was really impressive. 

“Our two guys [Mir and Marini], from the summer to today, have been doing – with some ups and downs – quite good results, also we were very happy in Japan with the podium. 

“The progress is there, but we need to find a little bit more consistency right now, and this is what we are focusing [on] for next year.”

Puig added that the introduction of 2025 Moto2 World Champion Diogo Moreira to the project is another reason for HRC to be enthusiastic about 2026.

 “Also interesting for next year, [...] we will have a new guy [Moreira] coming from Moto2, which is a young rider, which is interesting to see how he starts,” he said.

“It’s quite an exciting season in front and, at the end of the day, Honda wants to win and sooner or later we will be ready for it.”