‘Strange feeling in the gut’ – The muted end of a Honda career
To keep his head up amid his struggles in the final stretch of his Honda MotoGP tenure, Alex Marquez “just checks where the Ducatis are”
On the Tuesday morning following the culmination of the 2022 MotoGP season at Valencia, Alex Marquez will trade in the Honda RC213V that he’s been riding for his entire premier-class career to date and will instead jump for the first time onto a Ducati Desmosedici GP22, as he makes the switch from LCR to Gresini Racing.
But while that switch might still be more than a week (and one full race weekend) away, there’s an argument to be made that the former Moto2 and Moto3 world champion is already halfway at Gresini, riding as he has been in recent weeks with one eye very much on the future rather than the present.
That’s something that he borderline admitted to following last Sunday’s race at Sepang, where he endured yet another tough weekend to come home in a distant 17th place, his sixth non-score of a tough season that sees him currently also sitting 17th in the championship rankings, only three points ahead of team-mate Taka Nakagami despite the Japanese racer missing the past three rounds due to injury.
The reasons why 2022 has been just so tough for the 26-year-old are no longer a surprise to anyone.
The current generation of the Honda has somehow inexplicably morphed into a machine that’s even harder to ride than the bike it was supposed to improve upon with what was a radical step in a different development path for this year.
Alex Marquez at Honda
Starts – 51
Wins – 0
Podiums – 2
Points per race – 3.8
Average starting position – 17.2
Average position during races – 12.3
Average finish – 11.4
Moving the whole balance of the bike backwards in an attempt to give riders more grip and traction at the expense of front end feeling, it’s meant the usual teething problems that come with any major revamp of a bike.
And the outcome hasn’t just been poor results for the younger Marquez brother but also an unenviable crash record that sees him third in the standings on 20 falls, behind only rookies Marco Bezzecchi (23) and Darryn Binder (21).
Those issues have been somewhat relieved in recent weeks by new components designed to fix the problems at hand, including new frames first debuted at the Misano test and since raced by Nakagami and Marc Marquez, and an aluminium swing arm built by German firm Kalex as an alternative to the carbon fibre component that Honda have spent the past years developing internally.
But with the younger Marquez and factory Repsol Honda rider Pol Espargaro both set to depart from the team at the end of the current season, there’s been a noticeable lack of new components coming their way, with an understandable focus on Honda’s retained riders leaving the Ducati-bound Marquez struggling with what he’s already got.
“We had zero new parts,” he said after the two-day test at Misano before the block of flyaway races. “We were just trying more clear set-up options and trying to take everything out of the boxes so that there’s less weight for the team [to take overseas].”
He also admitted his frustration at the situation when addressing Spanish media, calling out Honda for a lack of support while acknowledging its logic.
And, with the end of the line now in sight, it’s perhaps understandable that he’s resorted to simply ticking the boxes and finishing out the year uninjured so that he’s prepared to jump onto his new Ducati in a few days’ time – which he’ll do for a team finished second with Enea Bastianini last Sunday.
“It’s sad, but it’s something that we already expected before the race,” he admitted, “to have this result. It’s a weekend to forget, and I told the team before not to go crazy: this is the reality, this is what we have. You need to wait until Honda give to you a better bike or something.
“It’s a little bit like you have a strange feeling in the stomach, because we are working really hard in the box, we are always giving our 100%, and I am fast in the wet or in mixed conditions where the bike is not important. But then in the dry I am like a passenger; I cannot do anything.
“It’s a really strange feeling, and we’ll just try to finish in Valencia.
“When I have a bad day, I come into the box and I just check where the Ducatis are. It’s the only thing that makes me positive and gives me motivation. When I see all the Ducatis in front, I am happy. I don’t want to be really optimistic, but the bike is there.”
