Marc Márquez is 100%. He has been showing signs of his good physical condition all winter and now the ball is in Honda’s court to return to making a competitive bike to fight for the title. However, Do you have any reason to trust Honda?
The answer is yes. In fact, Having Márquez at Honda is the main argument for the Japanese to continue working hard on a competitive bike. The pilots who were last year in the brand of the golden wing felt abandoned by the factory, but they went to work when the one from Cervera returned.
“Without Marc, we were heard less or almost nothing. Since Marc was gone, the bike has practically stopped. Just when he came back they brought new pieces that Marc himself tried. Some of them worked as far as I know, but only he wears, “he mentioned. Pol Espargaro to ‘Motorbike Magazine’ when he was still a Honda rider.
This comes to reaffirm that Honda has worked hard for Márquez and justifies abandoning the rest of the riders because the departures of Pol and Alex Marquez they were already agreed.
The performance demands of ’93’ have penetrated deeply in Japan, always with the pressure of a possible exit towards Ducati or KTM. And that fear of losing the eight-time world champion has activated the entire factory.
In addition, the Japanese have located the origin of their mistakes: “Last year we set out to improve the performance of the bike by introducing new parts. In the end, our eagerness to react quickly on several fronts got us lost“, explained Tetsuhiro Kuwata, director of HRC.
And to ensure that it does not happen again, they have made the decision to hire several engineers from different factories, mainly from the now extinct suzuki. A wise decision based on the fact that his two new signings as pilots come from there: Joan Mir and Alex Rins.
“The reason why we hire engineers who come from outside is so that they bring new ideas, new points of view and fresh airKuwata explained.
And the move to bring in engineers from Suzuki is a smart one as they didn’t have to break any contracts and on top of that they ended up being the fittest team despite leaving development early in the season.
This benefit is well known at Honda: “The experience and knowledge of someone coming from outside will be a good stimulus that will make HRC progress. For Honda to move forward it was important to bring fresh air“.
Honda has put the batteries. It will be the track at the first grand prix of the season at Portimao that dictates whether they are headed in the right direction and how close they are to their rivals, but the level of work is already up from last season.
And that is the reason for Marc Márquez to trust Honda. The increase in the level of work and the new signings give hope to return to the top.
