Honda was shipwrecked in 2020 and Marc Márquez rescued him from a 2021 doomed to the same result. Although it is difficult for the brand to recognize it, the man from iler is still the spearhead of a project that only he can understand. This season has brought out, again, the weaknesses of the Japanese brand, who has rowed through thick and thin without being able to change his final destination. At least not until the eight-time world champion reappeared, putting it back on the World Cup map. an HRC that was seen with many shortcomings. Just like Marc’s physique, which, after Sachsenring, was no longer the main reason for his lack of results.
It was clear that the Honda stopped being in 2020 the champion motorcycle that marked a stage of hegemony in the history of MotoGP. Not only because the crown fell to Suzuki’s box with Joan Mir, but the potential (despite Álex Márquez’s two podiums) continued to decline constantly. The arrival of Pol Espargaró did not help much either and, until Marc’s reappearance in Portimao, Honda did not begin to shine a light at the end of the tunnel. It was hard to admit it, but Márquez was still his guarantee of success. The brand with the ‘golden wing’ lost its way and its star rider had to take the helm and redirect the project from a motorcycle totally unknown to him. “Without my brother, HRC lost the reference”, Alex emphasizes in an interview with ‘Motorsprint’, confessing the team’s big mistake in the last year that led them to despair.
“It is no coincidence that when he returned we realized that the correct direction had not been followed. A situation that caused a setback in the development of all motorcycles “, adds the LCR Honda rider, who also confesses having had a” difficult year “where” he should have done something else. “However, there is no time for regrets. . The direction is set for 2022 and the entire factory, in unison, is rowing towards a new stage for the most awarded brand in motorcycling. A new starting point, but with the same common goal: to become champions again. And, this time, with a totally revolutionary RC213V, starting from scratch. “The ceiling had been reached,” the youngest of the Márquez recognized AS, who was already talking about “hope” and being able to “surprise” with the start of the year. “They have changed the motorcycle to a totally different concept,” he added to EFE just a few days ago.
Marc is still doubt
Although, amid so much positivism, reality continues to be a severe blow to Honda. While the factory is already working in the right direction (according to the good feelings left by the last Jerez test), the uncertainty returns to prime with Marc Márquez. The champion is still away from the circuits, in total silence about his new episode of double vision and with a new revision scheduled for this Christmas of which there is still no news. Nothing new. His brother, in charge of giving his face on the subject, continues to insist that the ilerdense “it is improving little by little” and that, for the moment, there is only one solution: patience.
Of course, he does not fall into pessimism and confesses that she does not consider traveling to Sepang without Marc to set the starting point for a winter that will be key for Honda in the future of a season of rebirth. Neither does Márquez himself consider it, who marks these tests as his main objective and that have a date for next February 5. He wants to reappear there to continue with the work that he left on track with the latest Misano tests and which have served the rest of the brand’s pilots so much to leave 2022 planned.
Being the guarantee of success for the brand, Álex knows that the presence of his brother will be the key to the brand’s return to victories and, especially, to the fight for the World Cup that they have missed during the last two seasons. “I would have liked to have him because he is important to me and to everyone. With him, both last season and this one, I would have learned a lot. It was inevitable to notice how everyone at Honda was in bad shape after the Jerez accident since the reference rider was lost “, added the LCR Honda rider who, together with the brand, continue to believe in Marc’s return. Of course, always in his best version and not at the risk of rushing.