Honda had gotten used to winning and the fault was not only Marc Márquez. That the ilerdense gave the Japanese manufacturer six of the seven total titles that they added throughout the last decade is an unquestionable reality, but the brand of the golden wing began to establish that roadmap that made it the most awarded structure in the World Cup in 1979. Simply because of resources, both technical and economic, HRC became the reference and its position allowed it to enjoy a certain power that to a greater or lesser extent, every year it was felt in the premier category … until Marc’s discharge.
Previously, the road was not always easy, there was change of drivers, losses of champions and streaks of drought in Honda’s brilliant career in the World Championship. But the figures support that None was as severe as the one that caused Márquez’s injury. The brand with the highest number of trophies in its showcases added a whopping 21 grands prix without visiting the highest step of the podium (until Márquez won again at the Sachsenring), and coincidentally his grayest era coincided with the claim of the Japanese manufacturer in the four-wheel competition.
Honda’s reappearance on the Formula 1 scene was far more complex than these two transitional seasons in motorcycling. The Japanese alliance with McLaren in 2015 was marked by unreliability And despite this, from Red Bull they decided to give him a vote of confidence (first mounting his power unit in the then still Toro Rosso, the Alpha Tauri of today) before looking for the long-awaited and promised championship of Verstappen. It was easy to convince the team ‘energetic‘and despite the fact that at first they only signed for two years, circumstances led to the extension of the Honda-Red Bull alliance in 2021, where the Japanese have ended up changing the trend that characterized them in recent years in the world the motor.
Being part of Honda in MotoGP was a guarantee of success and yet now the Japanese win on four wheels. The feat with Verstappen has been completed 30 years after its last milestone, with McLaren to seal Senna’s third and final title at the Great Circus, and coincidentally the award coincides with the departure of the F1 manufacturer. A “disappointing” outing, as recognized by the head of Honda, Masashi Yamamoto, to which they find no explanation, other than Honda Racing’s decarbonization strategy. And although goodbye comes just at the sweetest moment of this alliance, at least Red Bull has managed to get hold of its supplier’s technology to further cooperate on the new Milton Keynes invention: the Red Bull Powertrains.
There will be work in winter
The new company developed by Red Bull will take care of the engine program and It will be strongly supported by Honda, both technically and operationally. While in Formula 1 they seem to have found the way forward, especially after having brought down the giant Mercedes after an overwhelming dominance since the introduction of the it was hybrid, Now they need to rediscover the leadership in the MotoGP World Championship, where the brand of the golden wing intends to put on track a revolutionary version of your RC213V. At the moment the changes come in the air intake, the aerodynamics and the exhaust, in search of a new concept for all audiences’. Because among many other things, Marc’s loss has brought out above all a weakness: that the current RC213V prototype is only competitive with Cervera’s.
For its part, the trajectory in both the two and the four wheels leaves no room for interpretation: the power of the Japanese manufacturer is one of its greatest assets. In fact, this is a trend that goes back a long way, because even when Honda landed in Moto3, Álex Márquez was asked for confidence, and he ended up celebrating the title by issuing a sentence: “I feel the power of Honda.” And that has not been lost. Power is still Honda’s greatest virtue And as it happened in the return to F1, the only pending task for the Japanese at HRC this winter is to find themselves back on a path in which they hope to regain their dominance and of course, the best version of a Marc that begins to shed some optimism.