Before the coronavirus froze everyone in their homes and monopolized most of the news, to the point of threatening MotoGP with death, the sensation came from a rider market marked by a contract signed for four years linking Honda to Marc Márquez. A longevity that stole the show from Yamaha's speed in confirming Viñales and Quartararo in its ranks. Carlo Pernat returns to this lease, putting it in the light of a past experience with Valentino Rossi…
A four-year lease in MotoGP is unheard of. The standard is less than half. But here we are dealing with the world's leading manufacturer and the leader in the category. Marc Márquez. At 27, he claims eight world titles, 82 victories and since he arrived in MotoGP in 2013, only the year 2015 has not been his.
As stated Livio Suppo, Racing Consultant, to an exceptional pilot, contract of the same barrel. Charles Pernat, he develops the approach and places it in the light of past experience assimilated by Honda with Red. He explains on GPOne: “ Honda suffered more from the departure of Valentino than the opposite. At Honda the important thing was that the bike won and not Valentino's, so he was fired, that was their way of thinking. Then Honda regretted it very much, because then, except with Hayden, they didn't win a world championship before Stoner came along. In my opinion, Honda has reflected on these mistakes and I think that with Márquez it has gone beyond the normal way of thinking. They knelt before Márquez, and anyone who comes to his side in the future will always be just a second pilot. »
One last remark which should not pose a problem since this teammate is his brother álex… “ in my opinion he concluded a contract of 80 million euros. And I think his brother was put in the package. Otherwise, he might have asked for even more. This was a mistake for me. Perhaps KTM with Red Bull could have offered him a similar deal, while Ducati made an attempt for sure. I don't think they could have afforded those numbers without the intervention of Audi or Phillip Morris. »
Charles Pernat ends by not adopting the policy of Honda : " four years is a long time, many things can happen. Maybe he can argue with the engineers, maybe he can have physical problems. I would never have done a four-year contract. » Perhaps, but the good thing was that it was initialed before the crisis...
