Despite his troubles adjusting to the changes motorbike, Marc Marquez believes he is “not dissatisfied” by Honda’s plan to completely rebuild its MotoGP bike for 2022.
After many difficult years, Honda decided to finally re-design its motorbike for 2022 in order to address the rear grip issues it had previously had and make it more usable — a decision prompted by Marquez’s devastating injured shoulder in 2020.
However, the change in the bike’s profile to make it more rear-biased has made it tough for Marquez to adapt his riding style to the RC213V, with his greatest performance so far in 2022 becoming a fifth in the first round in Qatar.
Marquez was questioned if he was unhappy in the direction of the bike considering how difficult he had to push to finish fifth in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez on Sunday.
“I’m not disappointed, because it’s true that it was a big change,” he replied.
“I heard some comments, but I agreed with that change. But it’s true that with the other bike everything was more natural.
“It was a bike that I rode sine 2013, small evolutions, but the character was the same.
“Now there’s a big change and even Honda is trying to understand many things.
“Pol [Espargaro] for example is riding in a different way.
“He’s fast, even if he starts 13th, he’s riding maybe better than me this new bike because I think he rides a bit similar to what he had in KTM.
“So, it’s something with riding style that I need to improve.”
Marquez finished 19th at the end of Friday’s race, but he claims it was due to a failed attempt at a major set-up adjustment.
He resorted to a setting that allows him to ride the motorbike “the way it wants to be ridden,” but he still struggles with front-end braking and turning.
“I mean, it’s true that with this new bike it’s a big difference,” he added.
“You need to ride in a different way. Yesterday I said already we needed to work to try to adapt the bike in a radical way to my riding style, but with this bike I cannot ride like this.
“So, today we came back to the way the bike wants to be ridden and it’s what I did today.
“I just went back to what we had, more or less the same base as the other Hondas.
“But it’s true that in my case I’m still struggling a lot with the front, the turning is slow.
“It’s there where we need to understand because as soon as I try to push a bit more, then it’s easy to crash.”
Thinking forwards to the race, Marquez says that despite his good qualifying performance, he will not be battling for the podium and that his actual aim is “fifth, sixth, or seventh.”
“You can get frustrated if the expectation is too high,” he said.
“My expectation today was to finish on third row and I was second row. So, I’m happy.
“Yesterday I was 19th and in Portimao I was 16 seconds behind the leader, so the target needs to be optimistic always, but at the same time try to achieve what you can.
“And tomorrow what we can achieve fifth, sixth, seventh in a good race.
“Of course, I would like today I’m ready to win, to fight for the podium but now we are not ready.
“The past was the past, now is now. In the past everything was easier, now everything is more difficult.”
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