Those words, coupled with Honda’s behind-the-scenes rejig to bring them back to the front of MotoGP,💃 hav🦹e caused claims that they will try to re-sign Marquez.

The eight-time world champion has penned a one-year deal with Gresini Ducati so will want to decide his longer-term future by this summer, by which 🃏time Honda hope to be in a better position.

Team manager Alberto Puig was asked if Honda’s intention is to bring Marquez back for 2025, and🐼 he replied to : “Honda's🐈 intention, today, is to improve the motorcycle.

“We have to have a competitive motorcycle again, like we had y🦩ears ago. 

“Tha🎶t is point number one, th𒁃e most important thing. 

“Then, logically, develop th🧸e bike during the winter and race in 2024 and see what bik🧜e we have and what our riders can do with that bike.

“And, from midseason onwar✤ds, really see where we are. 

“That's the only thing I can say now. 

“To think beyond that would be crazy. 

“Priority num🌟ber one: develop a🐬nd improve the bike.”

Honda and Yamaha are set to become the beneficiaries of a new concessions system this year, but Marquez has feared it could still take two ♋years for his old team to catch up to Ducati.

Puig ♉responded to that suggestion: “The levඣel is very high. 

“Obviously, the concessi🍨ons thing is going to be a 🔜great help. 

“I don't know, if the recovery time was, I don't know, let's say a year, with the concessions yo🧸u 🐎can do it in half, in six months. 

“You needಞ a whole year, at least, to bring a motorcycle to a level, l൲et's say, close. 

“This is g🐟oing well for you. It is true that when you lose the thread a little on a technical level, recovering is difficult. 

“That's why we think that these conce💦ssions are going to be good for us and that they are going to give us the possibility of shorten▨ing the times for this. 

“Whether it will be two years, one and a half, one, I do𓆏n't know. But it's not two m🤪onths, of course.”

Marquez shone at the po💙stseason Valencia test on his Ducati debut, raising expectation that he ca𝓰n immediately challenge for the 2024 MotoGP title.

Puig considered whether Marquez can add a ninth championship: “If we limit ourselves to analys𝔍ing the current reality, the data, and make a comparison of the riders in Ducati and those who have left other brands for Ducati, and we put his potential 🐎as a rider on the other hand, which we know, obviously… he can win.”

The Honda team boss opened up on the emotional separation 𒁃between Marquez aꦉnd the manufacturer.

“It was, honestly, sad, I'm 𝓡not going t𓆉o lie to you,” he said. 

“There have been many years, and a lo𝄹t of success and also many ye⛦ars of a lot of tension and a lot of pain due to the situation, due to the accident. 

“In🐻 the end, when you put all that together it is a box full of pressure and super good and bad emotions.

“W🌸hether you want it or not, it is hard and it is sad.&nb🀅sp;

“On the other hand, I also believe that in life we ​​have to keep everything that has been achieved, everything that he has contributed to Honda, what we have learned from him, the human relationship▨s that we have achieved with him. It's been wonderful.”