Honda assured that it would take a step forward for Malaysia and Marc Márquez already said that more was needed if they want to fight for a World Cup again. It is not being an easy time in the brand of the golden wing: the injury of their champion has led to a change of course that they have not yet been able to handle. It seemed that at the end of 2021 the waters were returning to their course due to the victories, however, a new absence from the ilerdense due to his eye injury (double vision) and a fourth step through the operating room last June it made the path lose again. Again, crisis in the factory, without binding results and with a clear lack of communication behind the scenes. The result? Last in the Constructors’ World Championship, the Repsol Honda Team ninth as a team and Marc Márquez as the best HRC rider in thirteenth place in the general classification despite his absence. Total disaster in the year of the great revolution.
Honda needs to take risks but, for that, it has to know which direction to follow. “It cannot be a shot into the air”, as Marc himself said. They can’t afford it either. The work was already noticed in the Valencia test and, even so, the eight-time champion It seemed insufficient. He asks the brand for two more steps because, despite trying several things, the final sensations were not good. Solutions need to be found, but in addition to looking for them in the new prototype, they have to come from within the brand. “Honda’s big problem has been communication,” recognized Alex Marquez in an interview with this newspaper, pointing not only to the pilots, “also to the technicians and the factory”. “Many times, as Marc said, information is lost. I don’t think it’s a driver problem, if not an organization problem. Everyone at Honda says so ”, added the new Ducati rider, who is already leaving these problems behind dressed in his new colors.
A change of pilots may not be the great solution, but it can be the great asset of those of the ‘golden wing’. Or, at least, a clean slate. Joan Mir and Álex Rins are two of the great signings of the year in MotoGP and, after the sudden departure of Suzuki, they come to Honda with great “goals and objectives” to achieve. However, adaptation will take time and his long experience in another brand may be key to a new evolution of the HRC. “Mir is a talented rider and Rins too”, assured Marc after getting off the bike in Valencia, where he insisted to his brand on the importance of listening to more riders, especially those who are not yet familiar with the RC213V: “For me It has been important that both sides of the box, both Mir’s and Rins’, listen well to the first comments that are given because they are not flawed (a la Honda)”.
One thing is clear: they have to take advantage. Or at least so Márquez believes. “The first comments have been interesting”, he insisted, especially before both riders get used to the problems with the bike, since “in the end, you absorb them”. He met with Jorge Lorenzo, it happened with Álex Márquez and he happened again with Pol Espargaró. Honda can’t afford it again and everything happens through a change of mentality. “They can give comments, but the thing is that they listen”, He remembered the already Gresini driver about the internal communication problems in the brand, aware that the talent of the signings is never enough. And it is that Honda already has a boss to listen to, someone to trust and, being Márquez’s first full winter after injuries, it will be necessary to see if that change exists. Everything is in your hands.
