Takaaki Nakagami admits his closing Japanese Grand Prix as a full-time MotoGP rider is “unhappy” however feels the event “doesn’t change something” in his method to the weekend.
The LCR rider will step away from full-time racing in MotoGP on the finish of the 2024 season as he embarks on a brand new function growth function with Honda.
Whereas this can nonetheless entail some wildcards – and almost certainly a type of might be at Motegi – this weekend represents the final dwelling race of his racing profession.
Having taken half in 12 Japanese Grands Prix thus far by his profession, his finest end result on dwelling soil was a fourth within the 2016 Moto2 race.
Looking forward to this weekend’s Motegi spherical, Nakagami stated: “Effectively, will probably be a tragic emotion.
“It’s going to be my final dwelling GP as a full-time rider. However in the mean time, someway, I really feel it doesn’t change something from the previous and I really feel actually precisely the identical.
“So, in fact it’s one thing particular as a result of it’s my dwelling GP.
“However solely this, nothing extra. I don’t know, daily it’s going to change. However in the mean time, it’s okay, I don’t really feel a lot of a unique feeling.”
Nakagami began racing with Honda’s up to date aerodynamic bundle final weekend on the Indonesian GP, which he says made a noticeable enchancment to turning and bike stability.
Nonetheless, he notes that the RC213V remains to be missing in traction and is “nervous” how this can have an effect on the bike on the stop-and-go Motegi structure.
He says Honda has some concepts to attempt to enhance this space from Friday apply.
“From my facet, I acquired the brand new aero bundle final weekend from Saturday morning,” he added.
“So, Friday I used the earlier one, which is nice as a result of in the future with two periods we understood [a lot].
“Then from Saturday and Sunday we determined to make use of the brand new aero bundle, and back-to-back the distinction was clear.
“[It helps] extra within the turning section after which the bike is a bit of little bit of a extra secure bike.
“I used to be capable of really feel the optimistic feeling. However the principle situation remains to be the dearth of rear grip and a few wheelie within the exit of the nook.
“So, there’s some areas to enhance, and particularly right here, Motegi is a typical stop-and-go.
“So, I’m a bit of bit nervous in regards to the nook exit.
“However we’ve some plans to strive scale back the wheelie with the bike steadiness. Hopefully we will discover a good feeling as quickly as potential.”
