Anyone who thought a year ago that the HRC MotoGP team could not sink further into obscurity was wrong. But today we know: Marc Márquez’s departure to the Gresini and Ducati teams was by no means the lowest point. Last year, the Repsol Honda team achieved a 3rd place in the turbulent Japanese GP thanks to superstar Márquez. But Repsol Honda’s last GP victory came on October 24, 2021 in the Emilia-Romagna GP in Misano. Alex Rins’ surprising triumph in Texas in 2023 with LCR Honda seems like a coincidence, given the current state of HRC in the premier class.
Marc Márquez had won 6 world titles and 59 Grand Prix in seven years, from 2013 to 2019. Today, Honda is celebrating a direct entry into Q2 (as done by LCR team rider Zarco in Aragón) as a huge triumph and progress. Incidentally, the Frenchman – who had already fought for the title in his debut season with Yamaha Tech3 in 2017 and won the Australian GP with Ducati Pramac in 2023 – returned to earth in Misano a week ago. In 27 laps, he lost a whopping 62.637 seconds compared to the winner’s time. Marc Márquez won clearly, as he had done seven days earlier in Aragón, with the second-hand Ducati GP23 of Gresini Racing.
Long faces have been the order of the day at HRC for over four years. But the 2024 Gran Premio Red Bull di San Marino della Riviera di Rimini turned out to be the flop of the century: the three Honda riders Zarco, Nakagami and Bradl finished 12th to 14th.
The once glorious Repsol Honda team was already worn out from the days of testing. Apparently, the quality of food in the HRC hospitality has dropped to the level of the race bikes, as factory riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini fell ill over the weekend.
While Yamaha has seen some promising glimmers of hope in recent weeks thanks to significantly expanded concessions and the riding abilities of Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins, HRC engineers have gone into reverse on season four following Marc Márquez’s tragedy at Jerez in July 2020.
All the supposed innovations and ideas that were presented as such – but were nothing more than acts of impotence – have failed. In 2022, Honda took to the track for the first time in the Misano tests with an aluminum swingarm from the German Kalex engineering and even experimented with a Kalex chassis in the first half of 2023. In the fall of 2022, technical director Takeo Yokoyama was fired and replaced by the harmless and clueless former Suzuki technician Ken Kawauchi. At Ecstar Suzuki, however, the Japanese was more or less just the accountant of racing boss Shinichi Sahara and completely failed at HRC. He has since been transferred to the HRC Test Team. This is where the best brains are needed if HRC wants to return to the top. Instead, at Honda, this department apparently serves to collect useless technicians.
New test riders Aleix Espargaró and Taka Nakagami (his testing skills are controversial, his riding skills were not enough for a podium in 7 years of MotoGP) will soon experience their sad miracles. Speaking of the HRC Test Team: for almost four years, the Japanese have not brought any component to the track that could close the gap to Ducati, KTM or Aprilia on any of the 20 circuits of the championship. In the meantime, every rider available at the moment has been signed as a Honda rider for MotoGP.
Since Dani Pedrosa left Repsol Honda after the 2018 season, HRC’s rider selection has been a disaster. It’s no surprise that Spanish oil giant Repsol will be leaving at the end of the season. The fact that Pedrosa was allowed to join KTM as a test rider was a huge mistake. Jorge Lorenzo in 2019, Alex Márquez in 2020, Pol Espargaró in 2021 and 2022, Joan Mir in 2023 and 2024 and Luca Marini in 2024 have offered and continue to offer underground performances for HRC, even though – with the exception of Marini – they have won a total of 9 world championships on other brands and in other classes. Alex Márquez had been treated particularly badly: the 2014 Moto3 and 2019 Moto2 world champion already knew before the first race of 2020 that his compatriot Pol Espargaró would replace him the following season.
HRC has shown more foresight in its 2025 rider selection? Mir and Marini will remain in the factory team despite their embarrassing results. Taka Nakagami (LCR Honda), currently the best Honda rider in the standings in 17th place, will have to make way for rookie Somkiat Chantra, who has only shown his talent in Moto2 in exceptional cases. Nakagami will join the Honda Test Team in 2025. Factory Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaró (currently 9th in the World Championship) will become another Honda tester and will work for Joan Mir and Luca Marini, who have so far failed to deliver. Last year Joan Mir only achieved a harmless 26th place. He is now 21st in the World Championship, so at least he cannot be accused of inconsistency. Marini has scored one World Championship point in the first 13 Grands Prix, and only because a rider classified ahead of him was penalised in the German GP.
Marc and Alex Márquez are 3rd and 10th in the World Championship after switching to Ducati.
2024 MotoGP World Championship Standings
1. Martín, Ducati, 312 points
2. Bagnaia, Ducati, 305
3. Marc Marquez, Ducati, 259
4. Bastianini, Ducati, 250
5. Binder, KTM, 161
6. Acosta, KTM, 152
Then:
17. Nakagami, Honda, 21
18. Zarco, Honda, 21
21. Mir, Honda, 15
24. Bradl, Honda, 2
25. Marines, Honda, 1
As in the last two years, there is not the slightest risk of a Honda rider finishing the 2024 MotoGP World Championship in the top ten of the overall standings. The long-standing slogan “Honda enters, Honda wins” has long since degenerated into a joke.
Alarm bells should have been ringing for Honda after the 2019 season. At the time, Cal Crutchlow, the second best Honda rider (9th in the World Championship), had a whopping 287 (!) points less in the standings than champion Marquez, who had 12 wins, 6 second places and one crash.
As the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer, Honda has sat solidly in last place in the Manufacturers’ World Championship for the last three years.
The technical challenge to make up ground is progressing rapidly at HRC: last year, the best Honda rider (Marc Márquez in 7th place) was 13.576 seconds behind the winner in Misano, 49.061 seconds less than Zarco a week ago. Qualifying times also show no significant progress. Zarco would still have to make up 1.181 seconds from Bagnaia’s best time in last week’s Misano qualifying, finishing 16th. In 2023, Márquez qualified ninth, only 0.833 seconds behind. Thanks to unlimited concessions, Honda is therefore only 0.348 seconds and 7 places further back on the grid.
There is reason to fear that Honda would not even be competitive if they were allowed to continue racing with 1000cc engines in 2027, when everyone else will have to race with 850cc engines.
However, we cannot accuse the Japanese giant of lacking ingenuity. With Aleix Espargaró, Taka Nakagami and Stefan Bradl, HRC will have three times as many test riders as Ducati in 2025. And if the three test riders express three different opinions when evaluating new parts, there is certainly still room for reinforcements, given HRC’s unlimited budget. Perhaps three test riders will not be enough. There is certainly still room for improvement.
Where is it written that a manufacturer must have more drivers under contract than testers?
