Marc Marquez injury update | Honda boss: “Potential is there, bike evolving”
But, team manager Alberto Puig has insisted that their injured star rider should be emboldened by Alex Rins’ victory at the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas.
Marquez has been critical of Honda’s development but, as he sat at home recovering from an injury caused by his own crash, Puig took the opportunity to remind him that there is hope.
“We must take note and be satisfied with the evolution that the bike has made in a few races,” Puig told GPOne.
“The results of this weekend will surely have pleased him.
“We still need to improve the bike but the potential is there.”
Marquez crashed three laps into the first grand prix of 2023, inflicting a hand injury on himself which required surgery and ruled him out of the next two rounds.
It is already a bitter blow to his hopes of winning a seventh premier class championship this season, and he currently sits 57 points behind leader Marco Bezzecchi in the MotoGP standings.
He hopes to return for the Spanish MotoGP at Jerez on April 30 but it is no guarantee.
“Marc continues to follow the plan set by his doctors and is making progress,” Puig said.
“He will do another check before the Spanish GP to check the situation of the hand bone.
“From that moment we will be able to fully understand how his recovery is proceeding.”
LCR Honda rider Rins won at COTA after a costly fall from Francesco Bagnaia who looked certain to win.
It was a huge moment for a team who endured an awful 2022, and even failed to score a single point at a premier class race for the first time in 40 years last year in Germany.
“The final, and crucial, message of this weekend is that the hard work of everyone in Japan and Europe is paying off,” Puig insisted.
“Everyone in HRC is giving their best to get back on top.
“Thanks to Rins, we were able to get the reward of victory and show that we are still here, that we are still competing.”
Joan Mir, Marquez’s Repsol Honda teammate, failed to finish a race for the third time this season.
It was a stark contrast for the 2020 MotoGP champion to his ex-Suzuki teammate Rins.
“We at HRC believe that his potential is at least equal to that of Rins, because they raced together in the same team for many years and you saw the results,” Puig said.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
