No factory has made a more 'radical' change to its MotoGP mac🥀hine for 2022 than Honda, which has fundamentally altered the balance and character of its RCV to try and regain the technical initiative.

Rider feedback has been highly encouraging and while Pol Esp🗹argaro set the fastest lap time during pre-season testing in Manda💃lika, it was the average times and race pace of the four Hondas that turned heads the most.

Some have even suggested Honda might have indulged in some 'sandbagging' in terms of the bike's full potential over the winter, but all will become clearer when♚ practice for the Qatar season opener begins tomorrow.

"As you can see from the ou🐎tside, Honda made a big, big change and al🦹so inside – when I jumped on the bike - the feeling was a huge difference," said LCR's Takaaki Nakagami, who set the best pace of any rider during a Mandalika race simulation.

"The fi🌊rst impression was, maybe difficult. But lap-bylap I started to understand that this bike is a completely different concept and I need to adapt the riding style. But after that I felt this bike is much better than last year's.

"Definitely it creates a lot of rear grip and then the bike iღs more stable on braking. And the mid-corner. And of course exit.

"It's one thing to make a lap time and another to manage for the race distance. But during the tests I was really strong for the race pace, rac𒀰e distance.

"But still it's a new bike so maybe eve♓ry race Honda will try to do some updates for the 💦parts and other things. I'm really interested and really looking forward to this weekend."

Team-mate Alex Marquez, who all but equalled Nakagami's race simulation 🐷pace in testing, thinks the size of the changes mean it will probably take half a season to understand how to get the most꧋ out of the machine.

"The bike is completely different. It's nothing like last year's bike. So it’s something that still we need to try many set-ups," he said. "I'm sure that the base set-up will be completely different from Qatar by the mid-season beℱcause we need to discover many things. But the bike is better. More grip."

Honda answered its ri🌟ders' calls by providing more rear grip.

"The rear grip solved a lot of problem𓃲s that you can have on a bike," Marquez explained. "When you don’t have rear grip the turn𝕴ing is shit. The stopping is really bad. Everything is difficult. When you have rear grip, everything is nicer. So it's completely different."

Alex's brother and eight-time world c💧hampion Marc Marquez said: "Honda took a big step and, honestly speaking, I feel like I changed brands because it’s a completely different bike."

"In the tests we were very fast, but it was a very new bike," said factory team-mate Pol Espargaro. "So it means that there is margin to improve. And to feel like that, that the bike is working and also we have 🥀some margin to improve the bike through the year, that's magnificent.

"We have only tested in three places, Jerez, Sepang and Mandalika, but in all three places we were faꦚs🍰t."

Marc's well documented injuries meant Honda has only won three races since the end of 2019, but younger brother Alex un▨derstands why it took until this season to make such fundamental changes.

"In 2020 it didn't really make sense to change [the bike] because they were coming from many wins and the points record with Marc, sꦿo that bike was working," Alex said. "In 2020 it was no𒆙t bad, and we saw in the last races I was able to be on the podium in my first season.

"But it's true that in 2021 many facཧtories made a really big step and we were a little bit limited then. So now they think it's the right choice to make a radical change that is not really usual in Honda.

"So it will interesting to see where we a🍨re in a race weekend, which is the really important thing. Testin🦄g is one thing but here is where everybody will show their real potential."

Asked directly if he had indulged in any sandbagging du🌳ring testing, Marquez hesitated before reply🉐ing:

"I mean… I tried to show my potential in every moment. It's true that maybe a time attack,🌠 where I'm not really a specialist, was not my st🔯rongest point. But in rhythm, like in Malaysia I focussed to make a long run in the second day. Also in Mandalika.

"So I was trying to show all my cards but thinking more on race pace than qualifying tim𒅌es. So it will be interesting to see here."

But the night race format and special🥃ly an earlier 6pm race start means Qatar will be far from a normal weekend.

"We have FP2 at♛ night, FP1 and FP3 in the day, so that will be interesting to see but I'm ready for everything," said Marquez.

Nakagami added: "Looks like FP2 will be really important. So after FP1 ♛it'll be like going straight to qualifying. So we need to prepare for plan A, B, C. But anyway I'💖m feeling really good with the team and also the bike so I'm really looking forward to be competitive from FP1 and ready for the race.

"We are just looking for the result fromꦫ t♔he first race. Be clever and competitive from the beginning and hopefully we can have a great Sunday."

Nakagami and Alex Marquez f✨ailed to score a single point in last year's back-to-back Doha 𝕴races.