Honda has admitted for the first time that Marc Márquez could leave the team before his contract expires at the end of next season after the partnership hit a fresh low at the Dutch TT.
Márquez had already skipped the German Grand Prix one week earlier after crashing out of the Sunday warm-up, his fifth off of the weekend.
The crash fractured his rib, but he was declared fit to ride in Assen.
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Another crash in qualifying, however, left the Spaniard in limp-home mode for the rest of the day, and he withdrew from the weekend on Sunday morning, citing a worsening of his injury.
The six-time MotoGP champion said he wanted to complete the Dutch TT to rebuild some lost confidence heading into the five-week mid-season break but instead found a new low in his relationship with Honda and his career.
“On a mental level it is the hardest moment of my career aside from the [2020] injury,” he told Spanish broadcaster DAZN.
Márquez has scored just 15 points for the season, all of them in the sprint races. He hasn’t finished a grand prix in more than eight months, dating back to last October’s Malaysian Grand Prix.
His immense frustration with the bike — which has left both teammate Joan Mir and LCR rider Álex Rins with serious injuries in recent months and Takaaki Nakagami “scared” of going the same way — has fuelled speculation he could be weighing up sensationally cutting ties with the team that partnered with him for all his premier-class titles.
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Speaking in Assen, Honda manager Alberto Puig admitted that the Japanese marque wouldn’t prevent the Spaniard from pulling the plug if he really wanted to go.
“We have a contract, but on this question I have to say I think every person is free to do what they want in life,” Puig said, per The Race.
“Honda is not a company that wants to have people that are not happy being in Honda.
“Of course we have a contract with him, but also Honda respects Marc a lot.
“I want to think [he will stay] based on the contract, but I don’t have a magic [eight] ball.”
Asked whether he was thinking of leaving the team, Márquez said he wasn’t in the right mindset to consider his future.
“Now I am in a very [low] moment, and I cannot think about this,” he said. “You cannot decide your future or things when you are in that condition.
“I cannot decide any of these things during these days, these deep days.
“First of all I need to breathe, to think, to speak with my people, and then I need to ride the bike again. I need to ride in a good physical condition.”
Working in Honda’s favour is a lack of alternatives for Márquez to consider for next season, though few doubt that accommodations would be made by most manufacturers if he were to suddenly appear on the market.
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Honda may also have some time on its side. While there appears to be little redeemable about the current bike, a significant improvement for 2024 could prevent Márquez from lunging for the eject button — if in fact that’s something he’s considering.
“We’re trying to make a reaction with Honda to try and improve this year and especially for the Misano test that will be looking to 2024,” Márquez said after meeting with Honda executive vice-president Shinji Aoyama Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe.
The Misano test is where most manufacturers will bring next year’s bikes or at least 2024-looking components. It’ll give Márquez a clear look at whether next season is likely to be any brighter than his wretched 2023 campaign.
But that post-race test on 11 September is little more than two months away.
Even Puig is sceptical any significant gains can be made between now and then, especially considering how threadbare Honda’s rider line-up has been for so much of this season, which has hurt its development direction.
“It’s not a good moment when you have three riders in and out of hospital, and the problems we are facing lately, it’s not going to be possible to turn things from night to day,” he said.
“We are a long way behind. Frankly speaking, to fix it in two months will not be an easy task. If you don’t try, you never know, but it would be very optimistic to think we will have a high-performance bike in two months.”