LCR Honda won’t be a step back for 2021 MotoGP, insists Alex Marquez

Alex Marquez says he won’t dwell too much on his MotoGP future as questions are raised over whether Honda was too hasty in deciding he will move to the satellite LCR team before the 2020 MotoGP season had even begun.

The younger brother of Marc Marquez, Alex joined the Repsol Honda squad in a late deal to replace the retiring Jorge Lorenzo for the 2020 MotoGP season, a fairly unprecedented move for the title winners (his brother notwithstanding) to put its faith in a rookie over other more experienced options.

With HRC planning to use the opening rounds of the 2020 season to evaluate Marquez over whether he should keep his spot in the factory set-up for 2021, the late start forced it to make an early call and would duly replace him with Pol Espargaro, joining from KTM.

However, with Marquez beginning to find his feet on the notoriously tricky RC213V package with two podiums from the last two events, questions are being asked as to whether Honda should have trusted in developing the youngster.

For Marquez himself, he maintains the switch to LCR isn’t a demotion as he will be on identical machinery, together with his new team-mate Takaaki Nakagami, who was formally confirmed with the team today.

“Now it is easy to take a decision, but the situation was strange,” he said. “I’ve explained many times that I agreed the decision with Honda and I think it is a great opportunity to go to the LCR family and still grow there because I have a lot to improve and step-by-step learn.

“ For me it is not a step back, it’s to one side to be stronger and be a more complete rider, then if the results are good, try to come back to Repsol Honda. This is my main aim.”

Discussing the sharp upturn in form = where two second place results surpass the modest seventh place personal best he’d had up to Le Mans - Marquez believes he has cracked the ‘code’ to the bike, but admits there is a fine line in getting it right.

“You need to be complete and strong in all the points, you cannot only focus on one point and only be strong in the braking area, you need to be strong in all of the points. You need to have confidence on the bike, it is a very physical bike, especially with the front part, you need to have the main set-up and if the set-up isn’t good then the bike is hard to ride. But when you have everything under control, you feel great. 

“It has a lot of potential and I am understanding where I need to improve because for sure I can improve in all points, but maybe in braking areas I can profit from this bike. 

“It is demanding for the rider because if you try to relax one little bit you are losing one second a lap and that is why we saw so many crashes from Marc last year because you need to be always pushing and on the limit, otherwise you lose a lot of time.