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Despite his injury and repeated criticism from other riders about how hard the current-spec Honda bike is to control, nine-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez has defended the machine again. But is he correct to do so?
Now missing for the opening seven rounds of the 2020 season and looking set to remain sidelined for the foreseeable future as he continues rehabilitation on his upper right arm, it’s fair to say that without Marquez, Honda has been lost.
Currently last in the teams’ championship, second last in the constructors’ championship and with Taka Nakagami on the 2019 bike its best-placed rider in seventh, it’s been a year to forget for the traditionally-dominant manufacturer.
However, nine-time world champion Marquez has downplayed the impact his absence has made despite the numbers highlighting the contrary.
“I have a lot of time now and I read many things, but, in the end, if you take the last 10 years, Honda has had a perfect strategy,” Marquez argued in a Honda interview.
“Why? Because it is the team that won more titles, more team titles and more constructor championships.
“I think Honda is doing a great job during all these years. Every manufacturer is struggling for one year, but it’s like this sometimes.
“We are looking forward to improving the situation for next year because I feel part of Honda and I feel that it is part of my responsibility to be there to bring Honda to the top.
“And we will come back, but for me the strategy of Honda in the end, means you can suffer one year but you need to take the last 10 years, and the last 10 years Honda has achieved more than the other manufacturers.”
A traditional criticism of Honda from many of its former riders is that it creates bikes that require both incredible physicality and superhuman talent to ride – something that hasn’t been an issue in the past for the fully fit Marquez.
It’s not something that he disagrees with, either, conceding that it’s part of the character of the bike and something that riders have to work with.
“I mean of course a MotoGP bike is a MotoGP bike. I mean every MotoGP bike has a different character and then the riders must adapt to the bike. Honda has this philosophy for many many years in the 500cc and MotoGP classes.
“For example, when I speak with [Mick] Doohan, with [Alex] Criville, the philosophy was the same. Honda have a good bike, but you need to be 100% fit, you need to push the bike a lot but then when you get the feeling with the bike, you can be really fast.
“Then when I read ‘no the bike is made only for Marquez style and blah blah’, it’s not like this. I mean we have three official bikes on track, last year it was me, [Jorge] Lorenzo and [Cal] Crutchlow and all the riders have the same comments.”
The facts disagree with that too, however, given the torrid year that five-time world champion Lorenzo suffered last year as Marquez’s team-mate.
Failing to score a single top 10 finish and ending the championship in 18th, he unexpectedly announced his retirement at the end of the season rather than continuing to ride the Honda for the second season of his contract.
Marquez is in the unusual circumstance in 2020 of having a team-mate that he needs to fully support rather than race against, with his little brother Alex on the other side of the garage in the works team.
And while his injury has been far from ideal, it has at least the elder Marquez the chance to help out Alex as he embarks on his rookie season in the premier class in perhaps one of the most high-profile teams in motorsport.
“I try to help Alex and on Thursday when they have the tyre allocation, he sends me the photo and I try to give some advice, ‘maybe this tyre can be the option because last year…’ and all these things. But then we have like a rule, he needs to work with his team, we have to be professional and he is working with his team.
“If he has a doubt about riding style or something like this, he calls me, but I never call him. He needs to call me because he is in the circuit working with his team and he has Alberto [Puig, team boss] there, who also has a lot of experience, and Emilio [Alzamora, Alex’s manager]. But of course, every day we have two, sometimes three phone calls.”
While the topsy-turvy 2020 season – with its rookie winners, horrific crashes and upside-down championship order – has been tough, Marc says that he can see rapid improvements coming slowly but steadily for reigning Moto2 world champion Alex.
“It’s difficult for a rookie, but also for everybody,” said Marc Marquez. “The times are really close, I mean in one second there are 17 riders, 18 riders and this is something amazing because I think the level in MotoGP is really equal now and this is good for the riders because in the end, the final improvement comes from them.
“It’s a difficult season for everybody but especially for a rookie it’s difficult because you have many races in a row. It’s strange because when you race one time you go home then the body can understand how to improve, but now everything is happening really fast – too fast for a rookie rider. And we don’t have tests, they had a one-day test in Misano and normally during a season we have four or five days test that help a lot.
“Alex is in the process, one important thing for rookie riders is when they have two races in a row in the same circuit. This helps a lot, the most difficult thing in MotoGP is arriving at a circuit with a MotoGP bike and trying to adjust everything. Alex will arrive in Montmelo at the Catalunya circuit and he will start the process again.
“But let’s see if he did a step. To do a step is just to be racing from P8 to P12, this is the first step that he needed to do and then from there it is about trying to learn, see where you can improve and then make another step.”
