This weekend's German Grand Prix promises to be a moment of truth for the Honda-Marc Marquez pairing who have triumphed so much in the past at the Sachsenring. A new disappointment in what is a true private preserve for the eight-time world champion would certainly make the walls of the Repsol box shake again, as after the fall of Mugello where the Spanish driver evaluated the RC213V as as bad as "dangerous" . By the way, how were his comments received at Honda?
The least one can say is that, heading into this seventh round of a MotoGP season that promises to be even worse than the previous one—which was already a disaster compared to the rather depressing one before it—there isn't much serenity inside the Repsol Honda garage. Marc Marquez even points out: " Since we started the season, we've only received one frame, not much more ," laments the 30-year-old Catalan. " We're in a situation where we need to receive a lot more to continue closing the gap with the other manufacturers ."
« We feel that Marc Marquez is still part of the Honda family »
Another direct jab for the HRC boss, who has just arrived in Europe. Koji Watanabe witnessed the Mugello disaster firsthand. The Italian Grand Prix was undoubtedly one of the most difficult MotoGP weekends in his brand's history, with Alex Rins ' serious injury, Joan Mir 's less serious injury , and Marc Marquez 's crash during the race.
The head of Honda 's racing program assures that the real problem with the RC213V has been identified but not yet resolved. " We need time to fix it properly. We hope that by the end of this season, we'll have the opportunity to do so, " he commented to Corsedimoto . The goal is to match Ducati 's performance ; otherwise, there's a risk of losing Marc Marquez . This possibility, however, doesn't seem to cause too much concern: " We feel he's still part of our family . Honda respects the opinions of its riders. We don't feel any fear , but we will respect his decision, " he stated with a touch of fatalism.
Rumor has it that after the retirement at Mugello, a meeting took place between Marc Marquez , his manager Jimmy Martinez , Shiniji Aoyama , the number two executive at the entire Honda industrial giant (not just motorcycles), Koji Watanabe , president of HRC, and Tetsuhiro Kuwata , HRC director. Alberto Puig , Honda team principal, and Shinishi Kokobu , HRC technical director, were not invited to this meeting, which can be described as a crisis. This situation was mentioned by Oriol Puigdemont on motorsport.com.
