Still far from normal, says Honda’s Marc Marquez

The worst thing to happen to a sportsperson is being forced to sit at home and watch somebody else win the title that he or she could very well have clinched.

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez is feeling exactly that. He is recovering from a horrific crash in the opening round of the 2020 MotoGP Championship in Spain. The humerus bone on his right arm was fractured and the Spaniard is on the path to recovery.

“To watch races at home is the most difficult thing because you are there watching the practice, watching the races, you would like to be there,” the six-time MotoGP champion said.

“When you see that it’s so equal, many different winners during a season and I have zero! It’s a strange season and looks like we don’t have anybody who is making a big difference compared to the others,” he added.

The encouraging factor is that Marquez has resumed training and is feeling better. “On the physical side, I am in a good moment. But of course, I am still far from my normal level. From the cardio side, the legs and the left arm, my condition is quite good. But about the right arm, I need to make some big steps but now we are starting to do more exercises,” he said.

“From the mental side, it was hard in the beginning. Because you know, there was nothing to do at home, the days and hours were very, very long but now we have a plan for each day. Now, mentally I am feeling much better. The moment I suffer the most is during the race weekend because you are watching the race, all the practice sessions from the TV and it is not easy.

“I know that I am closer to being on a bike and that is most important. But I don’t know if I will be on the bike in one month, in two weeks or in two months,” he added.

Marquez’s domination on the track is mind blowing. And his absence has thrown the championship field open this season. There have been six different premier class winners in the eight races held so far.

“It’s strange because it looks like nobody wants to win! Nobody wants to be at the top. It is difficult to understand but if you are a rider you can understand it a little bit. One thing is to be a rider that if you win, it will be fantastic and if you win it will be something incredible,” he said.

“But when you are the rider that needs to win, then something changes and you have many more doubts because you don’t know if you should attack, if you should defend. You know when you are the rider coming from second place, third place, fourth place and you have somebody in front of you, you just attack and then you ride with more confidence because you don’t have anything to lose,” he added.

Marquez, however, said that independent team riders doing well is good. “It’s good for MotoGP and I think for the show that now a satellite team has an official bike. That means that the bike can win many races. This is something good because then a satellite team can have a good goal for a season, a good goal for a race, they are fighting there. For sponsors, for all these things it is much better,” he explained.

The RC213V machine Repsol Honda is using is undoubtedly good, but Marquez feels there is more to winning than just the bike. “A MotoGP bike is a MotoGP bike. Every MotoGP bike has a different character and then the riders must adapt to the bike,” he noted.

“Honda have a good bike, but you need to be 100 per cent fit, you need to push the bike a lot but then when you get the feeling with the bike, you can be really fast. Then when I read ‘the bike is made only for Marquez style and blah blah’, it’s not like this,” he said.

“We have three official bikes on track. Last year it was me, Lorenzo and Crutchlow and all the riders have the same comments. It’s another thing if one rider is faster or slower. But I am the first one that wants a faster bike and an easier one, it will be easier for me as well. It has potential but if you want to understand the bike, you have to crash many times, but you will understand it,” he explained.