WorldSBK: Leon Camier: Super concession ‘hasn’t been incorporated yet”

Honda used super concessions in both the 2022 and 23 seasons, but have gone in a different direction to BMW who also have it at their disposal.

Camier, who will lose his position as Team Manager for the factory Honda team at the end of the year, says the option to have super concessions next season hasn’t ‘been incorporated’ at the moment. 

• Bassani: “I’ve started to feel good with the bike, slowly catching Lowes” 
• Camier: “We’re not at the point to say whether new bike will be competitive”

The ex-Superbike rider said: “It hasn’t been incorporated; they’ve gone a slightly different direction with what we learnt with the super concession but we don’t know yet until we see it on track and have a bit of time to play around with geometry and setup. 

“We need some time to understand if this is the right direction as well but we’ll go from there.”

Super concessions allow a team to extend the setting range, but when talking to WorldSBK.com about whether the new bike is longer, Camier added: “It’s done in a different way with a different weight distribution; the centre of gravity is a little bit different. Overall length, I’m actually not sure where we are but I think it’s something similar but you can play around with that anyway. 

“Alter the swingarm length a little bit and you can have a big change, so it’s just done in a slightly different way.”

While Honda is bringing a new bike to the table in 2024 - Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge have already had their hands on the CBR1000RR-R at the ongoing Jerez test - the changes made by Pirelli could have just as big an impact, according to Camier.

Asked if the new bike has been developed around the Pirelli tyre, Camier stated: “It’s been on Pirellis for sure. I’d say it’s lot more based on Pirellis. 

“What we’re looking at, the changes we’ve made and what we’re asking for in the race team. They’re going more in the direction that we’ve been asking for but it’s a working progress. 

“From a team’s side, the changes that have been made have been good from a racing point of view and then we just need time to understand if it’s enough or not or what the next steps need to be going forward. 

“Where we’re at right now, with the first test, we’ll need to go away from here, make changes – probably not for the next test as we’ll be too short of time – hopefully by the beginning of next year, there’ll be more changes. 

“It’s important that this test indicates what we want for the next test and then we can make a decision on the race package for Australia.”