Honda has been preparing the big change for long time and although the past few weeks have been promising, the team isn’t planning to just through the dices and see what happens, but meticulously plan the big move. This means that the pneumatic valve engine won’t be powering the Repsol Honda at Shanghai as it isn’t yet ready and tested.

Rider Dani Pedrosa confirms:

"The engine isn't here. It's not ready. I asked to have the engine once it is ready and working, so we don't have to put it to the test. For the moment, we will have to work with what we have. No deadline has been set, and I don't know when it will be ready. We were supposed to have it to test after Estoril, but there were a few problems which meant it wasn't there".

Even so, the Repsol Honda remains competitive even with the steel spring engine which had it go 9 km/h slower the Ducati GP8 ridden by Casey Stoner on the Shanghai straight. This is practically the advantage of the pneumatic valves; they offer better top end and, as you could see, results are obvious.