“A lot of things have come together for Honda.” No more no less. Everything that could happen to the ‘golden wing’ brand has come at once to give them their three worst seasons in history in the MotoGP World Championship. And not just anyone says it. Dani Pedrosa can boast of knowing the Japanese factory well, with whom he has shared his entire stage in the competition, through the three categories. He always hand in hand and being faithful to HRC until his departure in 2018. For this reason, the Catalan is more than qualified to talk about the crisis that the manufacturer is going through, but also to comment on Marc Márquez’s recovery as he is his longest-serving teammate in the Repsol Honda Team.
And it is that after the withdrawal of Pedrosa the orange box has been a constant of comings and goings. Jorge Lorenzo took his place without any success, ending up retired at the end of 2019 and leaving a team that looked at the Moto2 champion hanging. Alex Marquez It came to leave better results, although with an ending that was already written: his move to LCR Honda to make room for a Pol Espargaró who already wanted to leave this 2022. A complete disaster while the ilerdense desperately sought solutions for his arm. He found it in the fourth operation, although there is still room for improvement due to the limitations that, this winter, he continues to encounter. But Pedrosa does not doubt the talent of his former teammate and knows that he will be able to get ahead despite the bike he finds in the first Sepang tests: “Marc has a special ability to win with bikes that maybe aren’t perfect”.
In the latest installment of the ‘Cuatro Tiempos’ series by DAZNthe uncrowned champion recalls his years with Marc, praising the ease of Cervera to adapt to any problem or novelty: “When we changed from Bridgestone to Michelin I had a lot of difficulty, but he, despite the difficulties, won the championship and adapted to the tyres. It seems that they have supported a lot in that virtue and have neglected others. It is what you see from afar, because the other Honda riders have not been able to ride the bike like him”. In the end, Márquez took advantage of any situation and his talent led him to be fast in all conditions and with any type of configuration on the bike. It cost Pedrosa more and, for this reason, he never had any qualms about taking off his hat in front of his boxing partner: “I have had moments, when the bike was very good, when it was going very fast. But when I was not so good, it was more difficult for me to go fast, I had that difficulty. Marc no, it’s the opposite”.
“I have had strong pilots from colleagues, like Stoner or Marc. I at that time considered myself equal, not less. Marc is a different driver, he has other facets off the track. On the track he is impressive. We would watch telemetry together and he would do special things, I would say ‘I don’t know how he does this’, things that I couldn’t match. Outside of that facet he had other things, quite a rascal ”, Pedrosa explained about his vision within the team, working hand in hand with the eight-time world champion, whose ability to overcome injuries he could not understand either: “If I fell like he did, I would go to the hospital, I would break.” And it is that the amount greatly undermined Dani’s confidence throughout his career: “That inhibited me from risking that extra”.