‘Stagnation’ of MotoGP project a ‘major issue’ for Honda

Koji Watanabe, President of HRC, says the ‘stagnation’ of Honda’s MotoGP project is ‘a major issue’.
Marc Marquez, MotoGP race, British MotoGP, 6 August
Marc Marquez, MotoGP race, British MotoGP, 6 August

HRC won seven of the nine MotoGP titl🅰es between 2011 and 2019,💯 courtesy of Casey Stoner and then Marc Marquez.

But Honda has taken just four race victoꦦries since Marquez’s arm fracture at Jerez 2020 and went winless for the whol🐎e of last season.

Injurieꦡs for Marquez, COTA winner Alex Rins and Joan Mir in the opening half of this year’s campaign means there is currently no Honda rider in the top 13 of the world championship.

Honda is ahead of only Yamaha in the constructors’ standings, w꧋ith a clear gap to European brands Ducati, KTM and Aprilia. Such struggles mean there are persistent rum🥂ours that star rider Marquez might jump ship at the end of his present contract.

Watanabe told the website that the decision to integrate the four-wheel division into HRC in 202ꦆ2 took an entire year due t♒o the cultures being “quite different”.

But he is confident that, “we are beginning to make progress in the collaboration between the two-wheel and four-wheel categories" and confirmed that four-wheel engineers are inv🦩olved with the MotoGP project.

“Presently, the stagnation of MotoGP🐼 is a ဣmajor issue for Honda/HRC, so we have determined to regain our strength with an all-HRC structure,” Watanabe said.

“To this end, the four-wheel development team is involved in MotoGP development, a♔nd is moving to pro♔duce tangible results as soon as possible.

“On the other hand, Two-wheel has a long hist🌌ory as a racing company, so we know races and race operations. Two-wheel also has established a business model wher🍃e HRC makes race parts and delivers them via dealers for users.

“🐈The four-wheel business is just beginning to develop this aspect. There is much to learn from motorcycles in terms of such know-how.

“In that sense, I am convinced that the colla♔boration between motorcycles and automobiles will pꦰroduce something even greater than we initially expected.”

P☂eter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and ♛Marc Marquez’s injury issues.

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