Repsol Honda team boss Alberto Puig appears to be banking on Jorge Lorenzo's MotoGP championship-winning past instead of his form with the Ducati over the past 18 months.
Save for a brace of wins, Lorenzo has struggled with the GP18 but still landed a plum seat next to Marc Marquez at HRC as replacement for compatriot Dani Pedrosa.
"Lorenzo has three MotoGP titles, we believe he has a potential to make good results with our bike. We expect he will try to get to the level and race to win, as he did in the past," said Puig.
"But you never know how a rider can adapt to a machine – sometimes it’s easy, sometimes not easy. It took him quite a long time to understand the Ducati. Once he understood, he won two races in a row.
"We expect him to be fast. How fast? We don’t know. When will he be fast? Also we don’t know. But we believe with his potential and his racing career, he is not coming to Honda to stay out on track."