Marquez: Honda has a problem with its project, not its bike

Marc Marquez says that Honda needs to fix its structure if it is to escape an ongoing horror period and return to the top of MotoGP.

The six-time premier class champion is out with injury yet again, after a fourth operation at the start of June on the arm which he broke in the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix.

While he is still Honda’s top rider in the championship despite missing the last four rounds and counting, Marquez had also struggled, relatively speaking, with the RC213V since his initial comeback in early-2021.

Despite wholesale changes in the last off-season, which left the Spaniard feeling like he was riding a different make of bike, it is arguably the Italian marques, Aprilia or Ducati, which now have the best machinery on the grid.

What is clear is that Honda certainly does not, with lowlights including June’s German Grand Prix, its first scoreless round as a manufacturer since that of France in 1982.

Meanwhile, fellow Japanese brand Yamaha could be said to be relying on its own Marc Marquez in the form of 2021 champion Fabio Quartararo, and Suzuki is out of MotoGP at the end of the year.

Alex Marquez, who is preparing to leave Honda and its satellite team, LCR, for Ducati squad Gresini Racing, believes that the European manufacturers have raised the bar in MotoGP with how they work.

His older brother spoke on a similar theme as he returned to the paddock at this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix to get an update on how developments are progressing.

“It’s true that the last items I didn’t try, the last things on the bike I didn’t try, but when I [last] rode in Mugello, it was a difficult bike,” said the Repsol Honda pilot.

“It was difficult to take the profit of the bike, and the problem was big; it was not a small problem.

“But for me now, the most important thing is not on the bike; it’s more on the project and the coordination area.

“I mean, all the information inside the team, in this difficult moment, is the most important thing, and the information needs to flow in a good way, in all the areas.”

Marc Marquez had said in a recent video for MotoGP’s official website that he wanted to see changes to “something on the team”, but he stressed that he did not necessarily mean personnel.

“Maybe there was a misunderstanding because we speak all the time, but when I say ‘team’ it’s not ‘persons’, it’s ‘concept’; the concept of the team,” he explained.

“We are seeing that European teams are working in a different way [and] we are seeing that Honda is working a lot; from the riders, more than ever.

“They are working and the budget is there and they are working, and you cannot say, ‘No, you don’t do anything’; no, they are working.

“But when I say ‘change the team’, it’s the concept, the coordination… try to find a way.

“I’m not the guy to say, ‘This is the way’ or ‘This is the other way’, because Honda is the brand that has won more titles in the world, and I’m here with Honda because I believe in them and I believe I can come to the top with them.

“But, it’s true that they need to understand the way to organise well, because every time we have more and more races – less testing – the work on the factory becomes more and more important than at the circuit.

“But, the circuit needs to work together with the factory.

“So, it’s many things that they are working really hard on, and I believe that they are in a good way.”

The 29-year-old added that “it looks like the mind is open” regarding changes to how the broader Honda MotoGP operation works.

Test rider Stefan Bradl continues to fill in for Marquez for the time being.