Marc Marquez's chief mechanic, Santi Hernandez, also took stock of the season after five Grand Prox contested and ten races which consisted of two Grands Prix and four competitions with his eight-time World Champion. The reason for this meager portion is still to be found in an injury at the end of a performance where the driver was trying, as always, to force his 93-stamped Honda to produce a level of performance of which it is intrinsically incapable. Which amounts to returning to the sensitive subject of the deterioration of the technical performance of the Honda since Marc Marquez took charge…
A theme on which Santi Hernandez obviously has his own idea. In an interview with Nico Abad on his channel Twitch he says : " it's very complicated, but with a driver like Marc the mentality is always to do the best. I'm realistic, we are not at the level to fight for victory at every Grand Prix, but we have the best driver and anything can happen ". He adds : " our goal is to stay ahead every weekend, not think about the title ».
That's the general situation. The particular situation is thus understood by the Spaniard: “ we can't win, we suffer, we see it with all Honda riders, not just with Marc. We see how much he has to risk in the race to stay ahead ". Then he assures: “ he is not asking for a motorcycle that only he can ride, but that everyone can ride. We see it with Ducati: having 8 riders who go fast on the same bike makes you grow ».
A noble feeling, an almost altruistic approach which, however, does not hold up in the face of the own declarations of Marc Marquez nor the assessment made by certain sources close to the case. Santi Hernandez obviously hasn't watched the documentary series centered on his pilot called "Marc Marquez All In."
Santi Hernandez will have difficulty convincing Marc Marquez's altruism
To stay completely in context, we will recall the philosophy imposed by the Cervera man in the box Honda since his arrival in 2013. Remembering his arrival in the Repsol box, Marc Marquez says: " At the time we had a great bike and everything worked well. So if a piece worked for Pedrosa, I didn't like it and I said: "It's not working, I want the other one, I want this spare piece, since I'm in the lead!" Don't give him that! It was like that. And when people asked me: 'what about this room? You want to try ?' I did not want. Because I didn't want him to have it ". In this confession, we do not really find the famous “he is not asking for a motorcycle that only he can ride, but that everyone can ride ».
This strange atmosphere, this influence is confirmed in every way by Dani Pedrosa : " In the team we were in, HRC, it was like this: the one who goes the fastest is number 1, the one who chooses the parts and the one who somewhat determines the direction. When he arrived, I was in this position then with the races and the championships, he took this position and decided in his own way ».
A very different way… “ When I was leading the evolution of the bike, I first had the parts and I never thought about myself. My way has always been to do what is best for the team, and if I have the best parts to make the best motorcycle, I wasn't thinking of my rival right next door, but of Yamaha, Ducati... Because I consider myself part of the brand. Later, he had this other way of doing things, which I never did because it's not my way of being. For example, before Marc arrived, with Stoner, we never did this game either ».
The same Pedrosa concludes: “ I understand that they are in a strange situation for what they are. It's perhaps a bit of a harvest of certain things that happened before. What you see now are things that happened before ».
We will also recall this evaluation made by a man from Aprilia who is the engineer Julius Bernardelle which we echoed on November 30, 2022. The Italian had listed two problems affecting Honda in MotoGP including this one: “ there is a problem that is linked to the management of Honda HRC, which in recent years has been too absent given the great power of the sponsor Repsol and the entire Spanish environment. The Japanese must once again be more present in the direct management of their investment, which can no longer be linked solely to the fate of Marc Marquez, but must have a longer term vision ».
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