‘Marc Marquez opts to stay, he let rumours grow to tell Honda to step up’
Marquez had been tipped to stunningly join Gresini Ducati, alongside his brother, in 2024 which would have been one of the most significant moves in MotoGP history.
But, ahead of the San Marino MotoGP at Misano on Sunday, new claims emerged that Marquez will stick with Honda and they will cave to his requests of hiring top-notch European engineers.
“Marquez has already decided to stay at Honda, fulfil his contract and try to get back on track in the coming months by working, long and hard, on the creation, evolution and development of the Honda 2024, whose first prototype he will test tomorrow in Misano,” El Periodico reported.
“There are those who think that Marquez has made that decision for many days now, but he has let the rumour grow that he was going to Gresini to put pressure on Honda and get the top managers of HRC (Honda Racing Corporation), its competition department, to step up, select their best engineers in all areas and start working with a European mentality ahead of the 2024 bike.”
Meetings with Honda’s top brass Koji Watanade and Shiniji Aoyama at recent MotoGP rounds have convinced Marquez that the Japanese manufacturer will change its methods, and prioritise hiring European staff to reinvigorate the team, it is reported.
Alberto Puig, Honda team manager, knew that the only way to keep Marquez was to hire the paddock’s best brains in chassis design, aerodynamics, electronics and telemetry.
Puig had already tried to hire some of MotoGP’s best engineers but was prevented from doing so due to the “arrogance of [Honda] bosses and the fact that the Japanese still believe that no one can teach them how to build racing motorcycles”, the report states.
The presence of top boss Hikaru Tsukamoto at the British MotoGP was to assure Puig that Honda would change their ideas, and allow him to bring in European engineers to appease Marquez.
“In the MotoGP paddock there are, in fact, not many Gigi Dall'Igna’s, but there are extraordinary engineers, technicians and designers in almost all the teams on the grid,” the report says.
Marquez has one more year on his current Honda contract - which he has constantly reminded the media at Misano, although it was speculated that he was cleverly avoiding questions about Gresini Ducati.
Marquez will test Honda’s 2024 bike at Monday’s Misano test, a day that he has long claimed will be vital in his decision-making of whether to stay or go.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
