Marc Marquez’s frustration runs deep. On the Sunday before the Mugello Grand Prix, there was an emergency meeting at the Honda Motorhome. At 11:00 am, Marquez and Shinji Aoyama, second-in-command of Honda Motor Company, met there for a talk.
Koji Watanabe, head of the HRC racing department, where the motorsport departments for cars (including Formula 1) and motorcycles have been united under one roof since last year, was also there.
Marquez was accompanied by his manager Jimmy Martinez. HRC Director Tetsuhiro Kuwata was only in the meeting for the first five minutes and then left. Chief technician Shinichi Kokubo and team boss Alberto Puig were not invited.
The meeting ended after 25 minutes. After saying goodbye to Aoyama, Marquez headed to the pits to prepare for the race. It didn’t take long. At the end of the sixth lap, the Spaniard fell while fighting for the podium.
It was another low blow for Honda. Joan Mir injured the little finger of her right hand in a fall on Friday. He decided to end the weekend. It was his twelfth crash on the sixth race weekend.
On Saturday, Alex Rins broke his right tibia and fibula in a fall in the sprint. He’s already had an operation. Another operation is to follow in Madrid. Rins is therefore missing at the Sachsenring and in Assen.
Mir will not be there in Germany either. Honda did not nominate a replacement. As a result, only two Honda drivers are on the grid at the Sachsenring: Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami. Another low point for the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world.
The crash at Mugello was Marquez’s seventh, despite only contesting three race weekends. He hasn’t finished a single Grand Prix this year. After the crash, Marquez initially locked himself in the truck behind the pits before returning to the pits.
“Sometimes you have to take a deep breath to find peace,” he later told the assembled journalists. “I took this time before going back to the pits and before speaking to you guys.”
Frustration at Marc Marquez
The six-time MotoGP World Champion couldn’t hide his frustration. At Le Mans he asked Honda to make progress. And although there was a break of almost a month until Mugello, no new developments came to Italy.
Also, his bike had a technical problem at the start of the sprint that the mechanics couldn’t solve. At the start of the Grand Prix, Marquez again lost positions. That, too, added up to frustration.
“It’s clear that if you don’t bring new things, you can’t test them on the track. It’s difficult to know what’s happening in Japan. But since the start of the season we’ve only received a new chassis and not much else.” , Marquez notes.
And Kalex developed this chassis. Marquez is more disappointed with Honda than one might think from the outside. He put the two difficult years behind him after breaking his arm in Jerez in 2020.
Along with that, the guilt Marquez felt because Honda stood behind him and respected all medical decisions over those two years. After the fourth operation a year ago, he no longer has any physical limitations.
Pole position in Portimao and a sprint podium. Second grid position at Le Mans and fifth place in the sprint. And second on the grid in Mugello and seventh in the sprint. But there were also a total of seven falls.
That’s what worries Marquez’s inner circle the most. The fear of another injury. “It’s worrying that all Honda drivers fall,” says Marquez himself. “We have to change that for the future.”
“The more often you fall, the greater the chance of injury.” And what did the discussion with Aoyama reveal? “The meeting was good. Meetings always go well,” Marquez replies. “We’ll see what will happen.”