The long list of riders Honda has crushed in MotoGP

Without checking the shredder of the integrity of the pilots that was the brutal 500cc two-stroke era, the 4T era of MotoGP that started in 2002 also started to take the races of famous pilots, it did not distinguish the champions , race winners or applied second pilots and Honda began to take the cake after becoming the most successful factory in the championship. Ten of the 21 rider’s titles, twelve of the 21 constructor’s titles and ten of the 21 team’s titles spread over the MotoGP era belong to Honda.

But all the previous years were better and the victories masked a fact, the second rider was burned when what makes a team or brand great is having two competitive riders with the same motorcycle and saying “the first rival is the partner of the box”, the path presented by Yamaha with the Rossi-Lorenzo tandem.

Casey Stoner

Repsol Honda rider 2011 and 2012

A two-time world champion with Ducati in 2007 and with Honda in 2011, Stoner ended his time as a rider in 2012 at just 27 years of age. He was fed up in the paddock, but injuries also played their part: “Most of my work consisted of appointments and media commitments. Then there was the issue of injuries. It dragged me down. Over the years I they stole my joy”, he recounted a posteriori. The year he rode number 1 on his Repsol Honda (2012) he suffered a severe accident at Indianapolis and underwent surgery for a broken ankle. He hung up the “I’m going fishing” sign and never came back. as a wild card when he was a Honda and Ducati tester.

2

Dani Pedrosa

Repsol Honda rider 2006 to 2018

He came to MotoGP as a three-time world champion and at least four times, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, he deserved the MotoGP title that eluded him due to a fall that caused fractures and surgery . Of the 15 operations he underwent during his sporting career, 13 corresponded to his phase in MotoGP trying to become world champion and at the same time directing the development of Honda with his special sensitivity to understand the parts that worth and those that are not. With the arrival of Marc Márquez in the box, who won the title in his first year, they stopped paying attention to him in the development of Honda in the current era of 999cc and that’s what happened.

3

Jorge Lorenzo

Repsol Honda 2019 riders

Alberto Puig, who was promoted to Repsol Honda team manager in 2018, brought together in one box a true ‘dream team’ consisting of the then quadruple MotoGP champion Marc Márquez and the three-time champion in MotoGP Jorge Lorenzo where he gave a good exit. in the nightmare of his Ducati stage and suggested him to replace his former student Dani Pedrosa. With the two of them at the helm, they hope to finally produce a motorcycle that will serve all Honda riders and not just Marc Márquez. In the farewell, brought to a year by giving up the second year signed after a season marked by misfortune, serious crashes in Montmeló and Assen and injuries, he explained that “I would love to win, but in Honda it is not possible in the short term. “. “He doesn’t deserve what he’s been through. He’s suffered a lot. The decision he made has value because it shows that he’s a champion,” commented his teammate Marc Márquez.

4

Alex Marquez

Repsol Honda rider in 2020 and LCR in 2021-22

The brown of Jorge Lorenzo’s early retirement was eaten by Alex Márquez who, instead of a quiet year as a rookie at LCR Honda, was alone at Repsol Honda because the Márquez tandem lasted only one Grand Prix due to injury to Marc Márquez’s right arm. The two-time world champion came to Honda at the worst stage, with an unstable bike and the possibility of flying from his ears at any moment. As soon as he started adding podiums, he knew he was ‘de-demote’ and when he passed Cecchinello’s team, “I felt that Honda had forgotten me”. He continued to beat himself up until he found a good outlet with the Ducati Gresini team.

5

Pol Espargaro

Repsol Honda riders 2021 and 2022

Marc Márquez’s old rival in 125cc and Moto2 gave KTM the best years of his career building the RC16 and by the time Repsol Honda’s offer of a lifetime came in 2020, the Austrian machine started winning races , although the victories did not come from his hand. He accepted the challenge of going to the best team in the world, but he encountered another reality: the company of golden wings lives in the worst time and “without Marc Márquez, at Honda we are hardly heard.” And then he began to say something that Marc Márquez is now joining this year: “We haven’t tested anything on the motorcycle. That’s why we haven’t improved, because nothing is being tested”, was Espargaró’s devastating message.

6

Joan Mir

Repsol Honda 2023 rider

Moto3 champion at Honda, if it was up to him he would not have moved to Suzuki, but at the Hamamatsu headquarters they decided for him and the 2020 champion has no choice in 2022 but to go home at 25 or accept Repsol’s offer of two years Honda. Less than a day after he became comfortable with Honda, he saw the same problems as Marc Márquez, but no one solved them. He gave up his physique for trying to get into the top-10 in a race, which he didn’t achieve. Two falls at Termas de Río Hondo and Mugello of the 12 he added seriously injured him, although the worst was his emotional state with so many psychological sticks that he dragged since 2022 with Suzuki’s farewell.

7

Marc Márquez

Repsol Honda rider 2013-2023 ?

And what no one thought of. Marc Márquez himself, author of six titles and winner of 59 MotoGP races with Honda, is about to enter this list of riders crushed by Honda. Since he was little, he was used to winning titles, making the most of the real irons and when he got to MotoGP, except for the 2014 Honda – a triplet title and Pedrosa was fourth – the rest was Marc who threw others. . Without him, those bikes would never have won titles and it was all in exchange for topping the crash of the year list with his aggressiveness in braking and attacking the front end to work on the tire. Until July 2020 came, race 1 in Jerez, and the course of history changed. A motorcycle that lost grip at the rear and crashed at the front end and an injury that dragged until mid 2022. And since then the various versions of the RC213V have not corrected that but intensified it with each passing – engine update. An unsafe motorcycle and ‘crushing riders’, a real Russian roulette leaving Honda in the frame for some GGPP.