SBK 2023, Xavi Vierge and his hopes of lifting Honda

Having moved to Superbike with Honda after seven years in Moto2, Spanish rider Xavi Vierge placed tenth overall at the end of the 2022 season. A few years back, Honda launched a new project, a new bike tasked with dethroning the Kawasaki, or at least making its life difficult. And so, in 2023, Vierge and his team-mate will be increasingly in the spotlight as they set out to give it their all.

Will Xavi’s second season be the year?

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Vierge quickly got comfortable at the start of 2022 as he switched from the world championship prototypes to the CBR 1000 RR-R. He secured a seventh-place finish in his first race at Aragón and was a regular top ten finisher in subsequent races. Four rounds later and he placed fourth in the Superpole race at Misano.

2022 was essentially a year of acclimatisation for the WorldSBK rookie, but next season should see the Honda rider scoring stronger results.

CBR 1000 RR-R: goal-setting

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Right from its debut, the Fireblade proved brusque in terms of its responsiveness and unforgiving in the face of any acceleration error. This was one of the main reasons for the fluctuating performance of the riders, but as it prepares for the 2023 season, the Tokyo manufacturer has brought updates that were tested by Vierge and Lecuona in the recent tests at Jerez. These are largely technical modifications to the structural part of the CBR. The team mounted a longer frame that, it is hoped, can resolve the issue of excessive responsiveness, and they also worked on the pivot area. This element can vary the way in which the front or rear behaves, depending on requirements. If these updates were to work, the Fireblade could take a significant step forward in terms of stability and performance in acceleration. But it still lags behind Ducati and company in terms of its engine.

Team manager Leon Camier talked about this during the Jerez test: “We have some slightly different engine specifications, an evolution of the swing-arm, and we need to work on the geometry. We’ve made some small electronics modifications but just basic things that you always try to update at this time of year. The swing-arm is an evolution of what we already had, just with another step to try and find a little more grip when turning”.

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