Marc Marquez quells Honda MotoGP return talk: ‘My mind is fully on red’

New MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez says “my mind is fully on red” for the time being in response to questions about a potential Honda return in the future.

The 32-year-old spent the first 11 seasons of his MotoGP career with the Japanese brand, winning six of his seven world titles for Honda between 2013 and 2019.

He quit the marque at the end of 2023 to try to restart his stalled career following several years of injury recovery and uncompetitive Honda machinery holding him back.

Moving to Ducati with Gresini in 2024 before stepping up to the factory squad this season, he won his seventh world title last weekend in Japan.

In the aftermath of this, Honda team boss Alberto Puig said it would be “a dream” to reunite with Marc Marquez again in 2027 but that it was “absurd” to think about right now.

When quizzed about this on Thursday ahead of the Indonesian Grand Prix, Marquez didn’t rule out the possibility - because “sport changes from one day to the other” - but that his “mentality” is to “don’t change” when “you are fast and happy”.

“I mean, of course Honda will remain one of the… well, the longest team of my career I think,” he told the official MotoGP website.

“And we have an amazing relationship, as you can see in the podium of Motegi.

“But always I have the same mentality: if you are fast and you are happy and you are smiling in one place, don’t change.

“Let’s see. You never know, because sport changes from one day to the other.

“But at the moment I’m very, very happy and three days ago I won the championship with Ducati. So, my mind is fully on red.”

Marquez’s current deal with Ducati expires at the end of next year, as do almost all factory deals.

He will surely be the central figure of the 2027 rider market when that gathers momentum next year, while the resurgent Honda is also set to be a major player.

It ended its factory team’s podium drought last weekend in Japan, with Joan Mir finishing third in the Japanese Grand Prix.

It marked the factory Honda squad’s first since Marquez was third at Motegi in 2023, a few days before he announced he was leaving the brand.