State of decline at Honda “really bad, Marc Marquez not happy”
Another woeful weekend elapsed at the Dutch MotoGP with just one of Honda’s four riders actually competing, with the other three injured.
Most notably, Marquez withdrew hours before the grand prix and, after eight rounds of 2023, has not yet completed a Sunday race.
Team manager Puig was asked about his star rider, and said: “Mentally or physically? Well, both, not too good.
“Physically he is clearly in pain. All the crashes in Germany affected him. He came here with a will to race, but over the weekend it got worse and worse.
“[Sunday morning] he said ‘f*** I am really sore!’
“We went to see the doctor and he was declared unfit with a problem to the rib.
“From a mental point of view he’s not happy at all.
“All these races which have passed, he’s had a lot of problems.
“The bike isn’t helping but he’s still trying, and that’s why he is crashing.
“When a rider like Marc, at the level he is, is going through this situation then he isn’t happy because he cannot perform, cannot deliver results.
“Finally, you are down. This is the situation.
“He has clearly expressed his feelings.
“This is not good at all. It’s clearly bad.
“We’d like to have both riders.
“At this moment we don’t have a factory rider riding.”
Joan Mir and Alex Rins are also sidelined with injury and, like Marquez, their issues can be traced back to over-riding an underwhelming bike.
Marquez, earlier this month, was spotted in a meeting with senior Honda officials.
His future has come under question due to the team’s inability to deliver him a competitive machine.
“From a Honda point of view it is not good, it is really bad,” Puig said.
“We didn’t find a way. But we are trying.
“It is true that we need to speed up the situation because we have to recover a lot of ground.
“We need to deliver a bike to the riders which is more friendly with more performance.
“That’s what they are doing in Japan and we are pushing them to bring the development as soon as possible.
“I am not in Japan. I am in Europe. I see what’s happening every week here.
“The Japanese that are in Europe also see the problem.
“What they see in Japan? I cannot tell you because I don’t know what they are thinking or doing.
“My understanding is that our staff here are informing the factory about the situation.
“That’s what they have to do, to give them the reality of the situation.
“The results are not good for a company like Honda and everyone understands this.
“The only thing we have in mind? We are not resting. We are trying to get back to our normal position.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
