Following the MotoGP test session at the Misano World Circuit in Italy, Marc Marquez indicated his future with Honda is not certain, despite having a contract that runs through 2024.
“Sometimes you can change, no?,” Marquez said after a post test in interview. “You don’t know. I’ll decide, I have two plans, and now I need to choose a plan. Of course there is a deadline. Around India and Japan I will decide.”
Marquez finished seventh in the San Marino Grand Prix in Round 12 of the season. It was only the third time this year that he was classified and marked his first top-10. But his problems began in 2020 after breaking the humerus bone in his right arm in the season-opening race in Spain soon after signing his current four-year deal with Honda.
He entered 2020 as the defending champion with six titles to his credit, including the one he earned as a rookie in the premier class in 2013.
Marquez missed the rest of 2020 as well as the first two races of 2021. Marquez won three races that season but has not visited victory lane since and has only one podium to his credit, which came late in 2022.
Citing issues with the Honda that are “more or less the same problems” with which he has struggled in 2023, Marquez said that if this is the base, there is much ground that needs to be covered to make the bike competitive.
Marquez posted the 17th-fastest time in the first practice session at Misano of 18 riders who clocked in. He was 14th among 16 in Practice 2.
“The riding style is quite different but, in the end, the problems are the same, so we need to keep working,” Marquez said at MotoGP.com. “Of course, you always expect more. If this is the base, if this the bike, then we are far. We need to work and change many things.”
Marquez further indicated he will announce his decision within the next three weeks.
“There’s plan A, plan B, and plan C, which I previously mentioned as two, there are three,” Marquez continued. “I have the three plans, the three ideas very clear, I am clear about what needs to happen for each of them. But there isn’t much time. There is a deadline. Around India, Japan I will decide.”
We think he is gone from Honda and that A Ducati ride beckons.
