Brno, August 19, 9 a.m.: when the Moto3s set off for the first free practice session of the Czech weekend, we immediately notice that motorcycle #6 sports a huge question mark, without the lesser sponsor.
This is the Ktm of the MH6 team driven by Maria Herrera, the only woman among the 112 male drivers what MotoGP matters.
We had already shot the alarm bell at the start of the season, because the young Spaniard deserves it.
Fourth in the CEV in 2013 within the Junior Team Estrella Galicia, she returned to the same team the following year and even beat her teammate Fabio Quartararo in Jerez.
In 2015, after 4 wildcards, she joined the world full-time, within the Laglisse team.
Sadly, this year, the Spanish structure and the driver of just 20 years separate after only 4 races, leaving her father no other choice than to create his own team, the MH6, with the kindness of Dorna. But the race is expensive, very expensive, and the sponsors are still not flush with the Ktm fairing, despite the three places in the points already obtained this year, in Argentina, the Netherlands and Austria.
The question mark that appeared in Brno is therefore the ultimate sign of a very uncertain future, a sort of desperate call to continue living your passion when the results start to be consistent. Silverstone, yes, Misano and Aragon, no doubt, but after that? We know that the asian tour is very expensive in logistics costs…
Marc Marquez himself declared: “If Maria doesn’t deserve help, then no one deserves it.”
We had met Maria and her dad in difficult times, and were as surprised as they were charmed to see the simplicity and good spirit that animated them.
Of course, competition is a cruel and merciless world, but we sincerely hope that a solution will be found so that we can still observe his charming smile and give him time to rise to the level of the very best, in the middle of 111 wolves with sharp teeth...
