Keith Huewen: 'Marc Marquez can’t continue to take these heavy hits'
Indonesian fans waited 25-years for MotoGP's return, but were forced to wait a little longer to see Marc Marquez race after the biggest star on the current grid suffered a massive highside in warm-up.
"I thought Marc Marquez had decided to fly home early, because that was a highside and a half," former British champion and grand prix rider Huewen says in the podcast. "The kid is taking some beatings at the moment and now he's had another concussion.
"When he stood up from that accident you held your breath. He staggered around like he was literally punch drunk. The right thing was done and he was taken out of the race.
"Only he knows how he feels. He doesn't show pain, even when he must be in a lot of pain. He shuts all that down. But he can’t continue to take these heavy hits. It's cumulative, every year you get more injuries adding up on an older body."
Despite missing the start and finish of last season due to arm and then eye injuries, Marquez still fell 22 times over 14 rounds, the highest ratio of any rider (1.6 per event).
2022 began well with only one Marquez accident on the new Honda in Qatar, but the huge Mandalika highside was the Spaniard's fourth fall of the weekend.
Responding to a listener question about why Marquez kept pushing so hard given his previous accidents, Huewen replied:
"Marc Marquez rides a motorcycle really loose. He would have been riding it on the edge already. He would have been close to a crash, because that's how he rides, every single corner anyway.
"In the past, even when you can visually see the bike tucking under or hanging out at the back, Marc has been able to save it 90% of the time. Marc normally will ride like that and save it.
"But the bike isn't really 'his' at the moment. Honda have changed it and then Michelin made those tyre modifications this weekend."
Honda left February's pre-season Mandalika test as the factory to beat. But in response to tyre blistering issues, Michelin switched to a heat-resistant rear casing not used since 2018 for the race weekend.
All of the Honda riders, plus the likes of Suzuki's Joan Mir, struggled badly for grip with the modified casing, which in turn caused them to overwork - and overheat - the front tyre.
"Remember when MotoGP went from Bridgestone to Michelin?" Huewen said.
"I went to the Sepang test where they tried the Michelins for the first time and the bias went from having an absolutely incredible front tyre and not such a good back tyre with Bridgestone, to the opposite way around with Michelin.
"So the balance completely changed and you have never seen so many top riders crash, I've never seen such carnage! The millions of pounds worth of damage that must have been done in that test. Until they dialled in what they needed for the Michelins. And Marc was a bit in that position this weekend."
Huewen - joined as usual by Crash.net MotoGP editor Peter McLaren and podcast host Harry Benjamin - also dives into the significance of KTM's victory with Miguel Oliveira, why he was disappointed with Johann Zarco's third place, praises the battling Binder brothers, plus the highs and lows from the Moto2 and Moto3 classes.
Download Episode 38 at the following links...
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