What does Honda need to do to win again in MotoGP?

Márquez was at the Red Bull Ring on Thursday and Friday to talk with HRC engineers and the 29-year-old agrees with this rival engineer’s analysis

“Honda and HRC are in a difficult moment, but for me the most important thing isn’t the bike, it’s more the project,” he said. “The way all the information flows inside the team is most important. The information needs to flow in a good way in all areas. If the information flows well and all the people are motivated, for sure we will get out from this situation.”

This theory fits many of the stories of manufacturer comebacks during the MotoGP years: Masao Furusawa helping Yamaha come back from the brink a decade and a half ago, Gigi Dall’Igna reorganising Ducati Corse to help the factory return from ignominy and Davide Brivio uniting the Japanese and Italian elements at Suzuki to win the 2020 MotoGP title.

Obviously the European manufacturers are currently dominating MotoGP, with six European bikes in the top seven of the riders championship and Ducati and Aprilia making the headlines.

“When I talk about our team it isn’t people, it’s the concept of the team,” Márquez added. “We are seeing European teams working in a different way.”

Reigning champion and current points leader Fabio Quartararo (who is the only rider of a Japanese motorcycle to have won a MotoGP race this year) believes there’s also a cultural issue at play, that the Japanese are too conservative, especially when it comes to respecting the technical rules.

“I think we [Yamaha] are playing too far from the [limit of] the rules and I think we are taking a little too much care, sometimes we have to play a bit more,” says Quartararo. “We are changing but we are still too slow. We need to take a little bit of the Italian mentality, this is the way to try many things.”

Most obviously the Japanese are very conservative with downforce aerodynamics. Take a look at the Aprilia, the Ducati and the KTM, then compare them with the Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha. This is partly because the Japanese manufacturers don’t really want to go down the aero road, because they see MotoGP as a part of their streetbike development programmes and they see no role for extreme aero on streetbikes. But it’s now obvious that you need extreme aero to win in MotoGP, so Honda and Yamaha need to get busy with this.

“The category is changing,” Márquez explained. “Before the bikes were very low and short, now they are getting bigger and taller. The last time I rode at Mugello our bike was difficult – it was so difficult to take profit of the bike. I believe in our engineers but they need to understand this.

“We see Honda working a lot, more than ever, and the budget is there. When I say change the team I mean the coordination. Honda have won more titles than any other brand, so I believe in them and I think I can come back to the top with them.

“But they need to organise things well, because every year we have more races and less testing, so the work at the factory becomes more important than the work at the circuits. And what happens at the circuits needs to work together with what happens at the factory.”

The lack of testing certainly hasn’t helped Honda this year, with a very different motorcycle and just a few days of testing to get the bike right.

Like Formula 1, Dorna continues to increase the number of races, while decreasing testing, because races generate income and testing doesn’t. In F1 much development can be done via computer simulation, but this isn’t so easy in motorcycle racing, because bikes are more ‘personal’ than cars.

Therefore once you are in a hole it’s more difficult to climb out of it.

Last week Márquez also revealed his hopes to return to racing this season, following a major fourth surgery to his troublesome right-arm injury, undertaken in the USA in early July

His reason for planning a 2022 return, rather than working on his arm until pre-season testing starts in February, is because he wants to find a development direction for the 2023 RC213V. If he leaves his return until February it will be too late to have any real say in the shape of the new bike. Obviously, his return depends on getting the green light to intensify his rehab programme following a major medical check this week.

If he does get the OK from his doctors it would make sense to contest the final two races, at Sepang and Valencia, especially because Valencia is the venue for post-season testing and Sepang will host the first pre-season tests of 2023.

“My intention is to make some races this year,” he confirmed. “This week we will have the answer if it’s possible or not. I don’t think I can ride at the Misano tests [next month] because this is too tight. If my doctors say the situation with the bone is OK I will start working to come back because it’s important to prepare for 2023.”

Márquez also revealed what led him to stop racing in June and undergo an operation which he knew was his final chance to continue racing.

“It was take that decision or finish my career,” he said. “The worst moment was at Le Mans and before Mugello, before I took the decision to have the operation, because I was competing and I started to have some doubts – is it the arm or is it the bike?

“I tried to follow my instincts and what I felt in my body and once I took the decision to have the surgery everything on my mental side was in a good way and after the surgery I was already convinced and optimistic that it will work. Now it looks like the arm is going well. Of course even now I have doubts but when I ride a MotoGP bike again I will know if it’s OK or not.”