It is understandable that Honda has all its chips on Marc Márquez. He is an outstanding rider. But in times without him, the brand with the golden wing needs to remember who it is and what it is capable of. Only then will it be able to overcome its frustrations and heal the wound caused by the Spaniard's absence for good.
Perhaps, it is even understandable why Honda has such high confidence in a star like Marc Márquez. He communicates with the bike like no one else, after all, he is the one who has been developing it for years. However, at the level the Gold Wing brand has been at in recent years, it is almost impossible to put all its hopes and frustrations on the back of a single rider. It is also necessary to look at yourself.
The Cervera driver will always be the focal point, in any case. Ten years with Alberto Puig's team, six titles won in the premier class. In all, 59 wins, 99 podiums, and 62 poles-positions. All this at the age of 29.
But it is a fact: the team knew that the high dependence could one day be uprooted. And it was. In a more recent retrospective, in 2020, Márquez was injured in the very first race of the season and missed the rest of the races.
The 2021 season looked more promising. The Spaniard returned from the Portuguese GP, the third race of the year, and won three convincing victories - Germany, Austin and Emilia-Romagna. Despite this, the multi-champion showed mistakes he was not used to. To make matters worse, he missed the last two races due to a new injury, this time to his eye.
In 2022, Marc still had the symptoms of double vision, but was allowed to compete. Only the very strong crashes brought him back to a past injury, in his right arm. Márquez sat out the Argentinean GP, after being injured in Indonesia. And, after another serious fall at the weekend in Mugello, he decided to stop and have a fourth surgery to try to recover. Maybe this year, maybe not.
"I will be back for sure, to make happy those who are supporting me, those who are suffering with me, to smile together again," he said. "The goal is to ride like before, I don't know if I will be as fast, but I want to enjoy riding the bike again, something I haven't done in these two years," he confessed.
The weight fell on Pol Espargaró, reserve Stefan Bradl, and the riders of LCR, the satellite team, Takaaki Nakagami and Álex Márquez. But they had little success. The best result is a podium finish by Pol in the first race of the year. So far, Honda is at the bottom of the championship.
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So, without Marc Márquez, what solution? THE RC213V. In 2022, the FIM has freed MotoGP factories to develop the bikes, unlike last year when developments were frozen as a measure to contain costs and limit the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Admittedly, there is no help from #93 in development, but there are experienced riders: Espargaró, who wants more prominence in the team, could be one of them. After all, improving the bike is hard work from the beginning of the season. With nine rounds remaining, Honda has the team to find solutions, if only in the short term.
Marc Márquez will certainly be missed while he is away. It's just that the team also needs to walk on its own to give him the necessary recovery time. It's the fairest thing for him, and the necessary thing for Honda to heal the wound for good.