After 11 years Marc Marquez leaves Honda HRC to join Team Gresini. This was announced in a laconic press release, without signatures or photos, by the same House of the Wing. The same one to which the Spaniard has brought 6 MotoGP world titles from 2013 to date. Good luck and I’ll see you ’round.
The infinite banter, the continuation of endless rumours in the paddock, the bickering of barroom chatter take some of the value away from this, which is effectively the most important thing that has happened in MotoGP since Marquez himself entered it more than a decade ago. In short, the news is big, but it has been out there for so long that it feels a bit like the story of the elephant giving birth to the mouse. Today, at the dawn of the divorce, apparently consensual, everyone is already here saying “I told you”, as if the open secret had ever been looked for. All well and good, but it was known.
The subtext, which few are discussing today because it has already been discussed for the past two months, is that MotoGP as we knew it is changing face and colour. Firstly because Marquez is still Marquez, and if he is well he is competitive even on a tricycle, let alone a Ducati. Secondly because a lot of balances change, for fans, operators, sponsors and constructors.
No love lost
Marquez did not like the new Honda machine that HRC brought to Misano for testing. It was the last opportunity the House of the Rising Sun had to keep one of the most extraordinary motorcycling talents of all time, and they played it poorly. It’s not your fault, it’s mine, and all that sort of stuff you say when you break up and you know the truth weighs a little too heavily to bring it out at the very end. That’s the official story.
Actually, reports say that the new project is not so terrible. Sure, flunked by Marquez and Nakagami, but promoted almost with flying colours by Bradl and Mir, the other sides of the moon. The opinion of Alex Rins would have been useful, if the Catalan talent at LCR (not for long, because if Athens weeps, Sparta certainly doesn’t laugh) had not been beaten like a drum at the start of the season by the same RC213V. Another sad story.
Indeed, the technical project has been the elephant in the room for several years. The bike that doesn’t move, the development that doesn’t develop, the progress that doesn’t progress. Many point the finger in Minato’s direction, forgetting a fundamental fact in the Japanese organisation, namely that the Japanese are extraordinary bureaucrats. The infinite layers of management at the very heart of Japanese industry mean that every decision is not only lengthy, but often extensively modified along the way from the bottom to the top and then from the top to the bottom. It is an organisation that cannot be compared to that of more agile manufacturers such as KTM, Aprilia and Ducati, where decision making takes three flights of stairs and probably an afternoon.
What happens to Honda is the same as what happens to Yamaha, and no different to what happened to Suzuki a year ago, when the company in Hamamatsu pulled the plug on the MotoGP project while it was winning at Valencia with Rins.
Likewise, it should not be forgotten that the Japanese, despite their complex management structure, always arrive. And when they arrive, they arrive with the power with which a company with 16 million motorcycles produced per year arrives. The same one that was mocked on its return to Formula 1 in the middle of last decade and is now instead the unbeatable power train of the record-breaking Red Bull.
Now, it is clear that Honda has suffered terribly from Marc’s absence during the 20-plus months of his physical ordeal. On the other hand, it is unthinkable that things stop working if the man for whom they were designed is no longer at the handlebars. Basically, and stopping to dance around it, it was not surprising to see that no one, from Mir to Espargaro to Rins to Nakagami, has been able to come to terms in the last five years with a bike that was designed for Marquez. A bike that fit him like a glove, and that for others has always been unrideable.
Beck and call
Notwithstanding the initial shock, Marc’s departure is good news for Honda’s technical department, which can now go back to the drawing board without the pressure of having to design a bike that pleases its multiple world champion, as well as all the other manufacturers. Honda is starting from scratch, and this is not necessarily bad news: with no ambitions and no expectations, the Racing Corporation can go back to doing what it does best, which is to design great motorbikes in silence.
Ducati can finally complete the jigsaw puzzle, putting the Desmosedici through its ultimate stress test, as well as equipping itself with someone who is probably already capable of aiming for the world title right from the start. Rumour has it that Borgo Panigale is already preparing an official Desmo for Marquez -there are two of them at this point-, like those of Bagnaia, Bastianini and Team Pramac. This is probably why Ducati has said yes to Marquez but no to his entourage, who either stay to wear the Repsol shirt or find themselves looking for work. The mistrust probably stems from the fact that Marquez has signed for just one year with Team Gresini while the weather says cloudy with chances of KTM in 2025, which is why Bologna would like the Bolognese to work alongside the 93, and not the Spaniards.
On the KTM side, and especially Red Bull, the separation papers signed by the Cabroncito and Alberto Puig smell good. If there was no room for the rider from Cervera this year -because KTM has more riders than motorcycles- the future is instead full of possibilities. KTM is expecting Acosta -the next big thing- post 2025 and would certainly not mind a lineup in which Marquez is also present, as well as probably Binder. Red Bull is ready, it seems, to put its own spin on it to close the circle and complete in the grand international design an incredible multi-sport dream team, which would testify once again to its extraordinary media, sporting and economic power.
The others are watching, well aware that such a weight shift can open up great opportunities, both in terms of performance on the track and contractual possibilities.
This is a fix
In terms of spectacle, audience and viewership, Marquez’s move from Honda to Gresini can only be an extraordinary card that’s been dealt to Dorna. Like it or not, Marquez is an exceptionally talented and combative rider, as well as an important media figure. Putting him on what is now the best bike in the pack could be any fan’s dream.
It remains to be seen whether he will be able to be fast straight away and whether the Italians will know how to be patient: the previous cases of Rossi and Lorenzo (who started to win at the end, however) are not a good litmus test, especially considering the different technical levels of the bikes and the vehemence of the competition. If we had to make a comparison, it’s a bit like if Hamilton went to Red Bull Racing, if Mbappe ended up at Manchester City or Stephen Curry wore the Denver Nuggets‘ jersey. In short, take your pick of sports, but at market level it is hard to find anything more interesting.
Precisely for this reason, and to end on more appropriate notes for these pages, this ‘great resignation’ of cerverian memory is excellent news for sponsors, partners and broadcasters, who will be able to take advantage of the surge in global interest and a reshuffled roster. Marc is an indispensable asset in this world championship, in which, if we had to find the hair in the egg, there is no shortage of talent but characters. The new Gresini rider is the most marketable of the entire grid and the most sought after by companies interested in two wheels. Having him uncompetitive and unmotivated at the bottom of the grid is not good for anyone, neither for the companies that sponsor him nor for the others, because the most important thing for any partner is a healthy, competitive championship with high values in the field.
It is, in short, the beginning of a new era for MotoGP: a brief thaw of one to two years in which the balance is bound to change, but in which the final result is likely to be better than the one we leave behind.
L'articolo Marc Marquez Leaves Honda. How MotoGP changes for fans, operators, sponsors and manufacturers. proviene da RTR Sports.
