Keith Huewen: Honda might well lose Marc Marquez, but has the magic gone?
Arriving at his most successful circuit of Sachsenring, Marc Marquez’s German GP weekend began by giving his bike the middle finger after it tried to launch him into orbit.
Five accidents later and Marquez’s weekend came to a premature end with a highside in warm-up, which left him slumped against a guardrail.
The pattern repeated itself a week later at Assen when Marquez also pulled out of the Sunday race, due to pain from the previous rib fracture.
Speaking on the 92nd and final Crash.net MotoGP podcast, former grand prix rider and British champion Keith Huewen said:
“I watched the entire Sachsenring 'show' from behind the sofa. It hurt me just looking at the state of Marc Marquez.
“I've never seen such commitment and dedication to getting more out of a motorbike than it's capable of – and getting more out of himself than he's capable of at the moment.
“Marc Marquez for me is either a lunatic or an unbridled hero, make your own minds up.
“You've also never seen such emotion from him as he sat against the guardrail. That's a fact.
“There was a time when you would never see pain on the face of Marc Marquez. He would rather hide in the truck than show any weakness. When he dislocated his shoulder once, he put it back in on the way back to the paddock!”
‘Will Marc Marquez dump Honda?’
“Marc Marquez is in a horrible position at the moment. Will he dump Honda? That’s got to be the crucial question. Will they even let him go early, and dive out for 2024?
“I’ve got to say, I think they all need a different direction. I think Honda needs a different direction. I think that it would do them good to lose Marc Marquez for a while and to rebuild from scratch.
“It's not like Honda is an unknown company that might or might not make it good in the future. They will come back technical if they have enough time.
“But there is that wider question, will we see the Japanese pull out of MotoGP? I don’t think so, but Suzuki has gone, Yamaha is still failing and then there’s the Honda debacle.
“Can you imagine being a Honda tech and taking the virtual smack in the face that comes with their riders running a Kalex chassis? It's a scary time.”
“Honda just cannot put one foot right within the rules as they are at the moment,” Huewen continued. “The rules are restricted. You can't do what you want to do as an engineer. There's not enough time in the winter. There's not enough testing allowed.
“Yamaha has made no discernible improvement compared with the competition and now Honda is in the same position. They're absolutely in dire straits. The one man that could have done it for them is Marc Marquez and it isn’t working for him now either.
“And they might well lose him.
"I’ve said it before, when Alex Marquez went to Ducati, that was a door ajar. And if Marc Marquez really wants something like that, you have to bet on someone giving it to him.”
Quizzed by podcast host Harry Benjamin on whether Marquez might even decide to call it a day, Huewen said:
“Well, there's the other question. His Granddad has wanted him to pack it in for God knows how long, hasn't he?
“You know when you've had enough and don't want to do it to that level anymore. Some riders made the mistake of carrying on. Some riders need the money, some riders need the rush that you get from racing motorcycles.
“But I can speak from first-hand knowledge on this - it's quite funny when you hear commentators talking about stuff they do not know about unless they have been a motorcycle racer - it's never out of your system.
“I was 31 when I finished racing, a year older than Marc, and even now I still wake up in the morninthinking about gear ratios and jetting!”
Crash.net MotoGP editor Pete McLaren said: “Marc Marquez has fallen 14 times this year, more than any other rider, even though he's missed three rounds. So there’s no lack of commitment.
“But I think the reality of the situation hit him as hard as the final highside at Sachsenring.
“2023 will be Marquez’s fourth year in a row without winning the title. No rider has ever won the 500 or MotoGP title again after a gap of more than three years, which was by Casey Stoner in 2007 and then 2011.
“I think the events of the Sachsenring and Assen weekends just underlined a growing sense of frustration and that crunch time is approaching for Marquez and Honda. He’s fought back from all these injuries and surgeries. He was ready physically, but the bike still isn’t and seems as far away as ever.
“Marc Marquez is going to have to make a decision sooner or later; stay loyal or go somewhere else.”
“If you want my opinion on that, you dump them straight away,” replied Huewen. “The balance is tipping.
"Marc Marquez’s enthusiasm and the magic he had - that guy could do things with a motorbike that no one else could do. But maybe the magic’s gone…
"Or he might just jump on a Ducati, KTM or Aprilia and win the world title!”
Download Episode 92 at the following links...
