As he struggles to find a set-up path with the 2022 Honda, Marc Marquez confesses that “now is not feasible to compete for the podium” in MotoGP.
The six-time championship winner has had a rocky start to the 2022 season, unable to grasp the new Honda MotoGP motorbike, which is now more rear biassed to enhance traction.
Next a dramatic warm-up accident that left him with a headache, Marquez was ruled out of the Indonesian Grand Prix, forcing him to miss the following Argentina Grand Prix.
He rebounded for last week’s Americas GP, finishing sixth following a dramatic comeback from last place, after a bike problem left him barely move away from the starting line.
Marquez is now in 13th place overall, with only 21 points out of a potential 100.
Marquez thinks he lacks the power to compete for victories at every racetrack in the European part of the season, which begins next weekend in Portugal, but that now is feasible to concentrate about podiums.
“Now we need to understand what our level is in European tracks, which I don’t think is the level to fight for the victory every race,” Marquez said at COTA.
“But another important thing, in a circuit I know very well [COTA], I know exactly where the weak points of the bike are.
“I already pushed to Honda to say ‘you have to work there and there’ if you wanna be competitive in the next races.
“It’s true that Pol [Espargaro] is riding well in some race tracks, [Takaaki] Nakagami is riding well in some race tracks.
“But we have some weak points that we need to improve if we want to be consistent in all race tracks.
“I mean what I learn is that with this championship, with this bike, you cannot predict the GP.
“You cannot go into a GP and say ‘this one I will win, this one I will finish top five, this one I will finish top 10’.
“You don’t know. During the weekend you need to accept where you are and if you are 10th, you are 10th.
“But of course I will take the risk and the target is to try to build the podium every race. But right now is not the time to fight for the podium.”
Pol Espargaro, Marquez’s colleague, finished 13th in the COTA race after suffering from foodborne illness, and is the only Honda racer to reach the podium thus far in 2022, after placing third in Qatar.
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