Confidential Box: Honda has to stop its motorcycles

Honda needs to stop their bikes.

The absence of Joan Mir – physically injured in his right hand and his morale on the ground after crashing 12 times in five GGPP – and Alex Rins – with a fractured tibia and fibula in his right leg – meant that Honda arrived at the Sachsenring with two. of the four bikes he ranked in MotoGP. Well, one day in Germany is enough to come close to staying in the picture. Takaaki Nakagami crashes at high speed turn #xx, his bike split in two; Marc Márquez neutralized, as usual, several cautions, until a few minutes from the end when he lost the brake on the front tire at the end of the straight, starring in one of the most violent crashes seen in MotoGP when crashed into Johann’s Ducati Zarco. Fortunately, there were no physical consequences for Márquez or Zarco, but tragedy was imminent. Some will say that “everyone on earth” Honda riders are just unlucky, but the truth is that the HRC bike is currently a kind of Russian roulette for its riders with more bullets in the drum than empty ones. hole .

Marc Márquez is widespread.

I can not believe. When I saw Marc Márquez get up from the ground after the cold impact on Zarco that chilled our blood, the only thing that came to my mind was that he would be interested in the French pilot, who was lying on the ground. But to my surprise – the word ‘hallucine’ fits better here, but I don’t know if it exists – his last station was not Zarco but to return to the box as soon as possible to try to take advantage of the remaining minutes – of the session !… This is one of the most unsporting acts I have ever seen in my life, and certainly the most I have seen in my 30 years in MotoGP. This is certainly not the attitude of someone who claims that Rafael Nadal is a reference. “I am me, you know how I am” showed two things: just having a thought in your head, and letting go of the values ​​expected of an athlete at some point along the way. And I am not referring to those who want to win at all costs, to give everything for victory, without sacrifice or effort, for which Marc Márquez has no equal, but of human values. I understand, or at least I understood until now, that there are more important things to win; but he was clearly wrong. And I’m not going to go into whether Zarco is to blame for the accident or not, that’s a topic for another book.

This hasn’t happened in 50 years!

When tomorrow, Saturday, MotoGP lines up for the short race grid, of the 20 bikes that will be built here, only four! they will be japanese This is certainly an amazing fact. In fact, you have to go back to the 1974 World Championship to find a similar situation. It is true that the deaths of Joan Mir and Alex Rins, both Honda riders, coincided with the Sachsenring, but it is also true that the brands that have dominated the World Championship for the last five decades have been overwhelmed by European manufacturers. Ducati, KTM and Aprilia have gradually stolen space, fame and now the results too. In the 2022 Constructors’ World Championship, out of six manufacturers, Suzuki and Honda finished fifth and sixth respectively; this season, with Suzuki’s departure from the GGPP, Yamaha and Honda occupied the last two positions. The Europeans swept over the Japanese like a tsunami, and as happens with giant waves, this situation did not develop overnight, but was created ‘offshore’ without the Japanese realizing what was coming to them.