Alex Rins has been surprised by the change in his relationship with Ken Kawauchi when the pair both joined Honda, while the Spaniard prepares to make his MotoGP comeback.
Kawauchi was one of the keys to the success at Suzuki on its return to MotoGP from 2015 and, together with Davide Brivio, he took charge of the technical side up until the Japanese manufacturer quit the series at the end of 2022.
Both Rins and Kawauchi found refuge at Honda, Rins joining satellite squad LCR while Kawauchi became HRC technical manager and replaced Takeo Yokoyama. It was thought Kawauchi's presence in the senior Honda ranks would have helped in that regard, but Rins said that was far from the case. "I don't know if it's been on Ken's side or Honda's side, but the communication has been super poor," Rins said on the Spanish edition of Motorsport.com's Por Orejas podcast."I was expecting the same thing you were expecting. That, coming from Suzuki, where we were together for many years, at Honda we would also talk, we would meet. It was not at all what I thought.