Repsol-Honda and Marc Márquez ended their relationship prematurely yesterday (the rider had one more year left on his contract) and closed one of the soap operas of the season in MotoGP. He disenchantment The Catalan with his Honda was notorious, with an ungovernable motorcycle that had stagnated, coinciding with the enormous evolution of European factories, with Ducati as the great dominator. A born winner, his competitive gene has had more weight than the 12.5 million a yearaccording to Forbes, which he perceives and which makes him the highest paid driver on the grid.
“This podium has no influence on my future at all,” he warned this past weekend in Motegi after getting on the box a year later. The decision was made. A decision that began to take shape during his convalescence after his humerus fracture at the Jerez GPin July 2020. The electronics were the cause of the Catalan being spit on over his handlebars and breaking his right arm, an injury that made him undergo surgery four times and made him think about retirement: after two years of calvary He found himself with a motorcycle that was difficult to ride, something that the rest of his colleagues at Honda suffered from, and that at the slightest moment sent him to the ground.
The first warning was given in mid-2022, shortly before reappearing in the Misano test. Márquez met with Honda’s leadership to warn them. «I want to go back up with you, but if not with you, I’m going to look for life», he snapped, showing them the scar on his arm. And a few months later she began to understand it. He was running in November, with the season just over and the driver in Cheste for the tests in which the prototype for this year 2023 was evaluated. disenchantment was capital when he realized that he would not ride a winning bike and that Honda had not evolved it correctly.
Falls, injuries and combs
This is how the current season began, with Márquez spending more time on the asphalt than on the bike and adding injuries and fractures to his body, which forced him to miss the races. Argentina, Austin and Jerez (he broke his first metacarpal in Portimao). He didn’t enter the points until Austria (tenth round on the calendar), but the moment when the definitive click occurred was at Sachsenring, one of his favorite circuits. Márquez suffered five falls in Germany in two days, one of them in the warm-up. Although he received approval from the World Cup medical services, he decided not to participate in the race. That and his comb on camera after a spectacular save was a clear message to Honda. «I am hot-blooded. Try, try and see that it doesn’t work… It’s time to take a step back», he justified later. That day was the day of no return, in which he decided to finish the season as best he could but preserving his physique.
In Montmeló, in September, he gave himself more reasons. Honda and Yamaha were last in Friday’s classification, something never seen before. And in the Misano test A few days later, he verified that the motorcycle they offered him for 2024 was not what he expected. He resigned himself and began to talk with Honda about how and when to end their relationship, one of the most successful alliances in the history of the World Cup and that has lasted 11 years, in which Marc has won 6 championships of the premier category, in addition to 59 victories, 101 podiums and 64 pole positions.
Now a new scenario opens up regarding his future in which the Gresini Racing is postulated as their destination, although first they have to announce the departure of Fabio Di Giannantonio. He would share a box with his brother Alex, recently renovated. But we will have to see if Ducati, who blesses his arrival, allows him to pilot a satellite. At the moment, the official ones are Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini.
2023-10-05 08:36:47
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