Honda’s full factory project has struggled to ꦐreach the heights many expected in recent seasons, however, a new bike for 2024 has Vierge very excited about 𝓀the upcoming WorldSBK campaign.

Testing the new machine for the first time during a💃 two-day test at Jerez, which concluded yesterday, Vierge backed up the comments made by team-mate Lecuona who said it’s a step forward.

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Vierge told WorldSBK.com: “We are happy. It has been a really good two dayꦯs⭕ of testing and track conditions have been really good, so we can do many laps. 

“The first test has been more ab🤪out adapting ourselves to the new bike. We didn’✨t want to change too much. We rode with the base setup that they prepared for us Tetsuta in Japan. The first impressions have been really good. 

“The bike looks similar but there are many changes. We really feel t🌄he strong points. 

“At the moment, we can’t take enough advantage about the new strong 🦹points but it’s just the beginning; we didn’t change many things on the bike, we just did 🌳laps to see how everything works. 

“Really happy and now we have some weeks to analyse all this data and to prepare a new plan for Portimao.൲ We have another day before the winter break.”

Vierge started the test with the 2023-spec biꦑke but as soon as he switched there was an immediate improvement.

The former Moto2 rider said: “I started with the old bike and when I jumped𒆙 on the new bike, I immediately felt some st💙rong points compared to the old bike. 

“We had two years with the old bike so, at the b🎉eginning, I felt a little bit strange in some areas. During these two days, I was able to adapt and start to feel better. 

“Right now, we are going a little bit faster than with the old bike, b🍨ut the good point is that with the old bike, we always feel like we’re on the limit and we꧒ don’t know how to go faster, with this bike it’s like there’s a lot of room to improve. 

“We need to understand the direction to follow to take profit from a🧸ll the new things.”