Box Confidential: ‘Honda is Honda’, when pride becomes flawed

‘Honda is Honda’: When pride becomes a flaw.

While Yamaha is quietly working on what will be an important change in management in MotoGP, revolutionary dare I say, at Honda they remain closed and tight. From what they tell me, a wall where Alberto Puig’s proposals to westernize the Team Repsol Honda box have repeatedly crashed; . The argument?: ‘Honda is Honda’. It’s true that they listen to him, that they let his ideas show, but that’s the point. The last ‘NO’ to Puig was ignoring his strategy to cover the loss of Márquez. The Spanish manager advocated for a bridge driver with a one-year contract that would give Honda the possibility to enter the market at the end of 2024 where almost the entire grid will be free. Instead, the final decision was to replace Marc Márquez with a driver who has an agreement until the end of 2025. The name is not a secret at this point: Luca Marini… And in Honda it is Japan that decides.

The ‘unfinished account’ of Pedro Acosta.

The rivalry between Jorge Martín and Pecco Bagnaia, and the possibility of Jaume Masia becoming Moto3 World Champion, is the focus of the news this weekend here in Qatar. But there is a third hand in the shadows: that of Pedro Acosta and Fermín Aldeguer. And not because the current two stylish names in Moto2 are the same. The first after the flamboyantly proclaimed himself Moto2 World Champion five days ago; the second by winning the last two GGPPs and by unexpectedly joining Valentino Rossi’s MotoGP Team VR46. The rivalry between Acosta and Aldeguer is more basic than all this: they are compatriots and fierce rivals almost from the time they started crawling; and besides, they don’t agree. Now that he is freed from having a title race in mind, Pedro can do so with his focus on Fermín… Pay attention to the four remaining races.

‘The Brad way’, on the Binder way.

In a World Cup dominated by Latinos, especially Spanish and Italian, South African Brad Binder is a white blackbird. But Brad is not only different because of his passport, but also because of his attitude. Everything seems to be going well for Binder, even if he doesn’t like it. This season he has lost the position he won in the race up to three times by stepping on the green limiting track in the last lap, although in none of them he won with it. None of them protested. In an interview I did with him yesterday – which we will soon publish here at MD – I asked Binder if the 44 races planned last year didn’t seem like too many. He looked at me with surprise, as if he could not understand the reason for my question. “As you know I am South African. I leave my house at the end of January and don’t come back until the beginning of December. And do you know why I do this?… To run: So the more I run, the more well… ‘The Brad way’.