Marc Marquez managed to become the ‘King’ of MotoGP by winning six world titles in the last seven seasons. How can Marquez get the status of ‘King’ in MotoGP in only a short amount of time?
Marquez won six MotoGP world titles since promotion in 2013. Only in the 2015 season the 26-year rider failed to become a world champion. In just seven seasons in MotoGP, Marquez has approached with the status of a rider with the largest collection of world titles.
Marquez is only two titles behind Giacomo Agostini to become the rider with the largest collection of world class titles in the Grand Prix. Especially for Valentino Rossi, The Baby Alien is less than one world title to equal the nine world titles of The Doctor in all classes.
Many people consider Marquez to dominate MotoGP in the last seven seasons because Honda is the only team to develop a motorcycle perfectly. Honda has successfully developed the RC213V motorcycle to be more perfect in recent years, offsetting the speed of the Desmosedici Ducati and Yamaha M1 acceleration.
But if Marquez has always been the MotoGP world champion because Honda has the perfect motorcycle, then Dani Pedrosa should be the world champion, or Jorge Lorenzo and Cal Crutchlow and Takaaki Nakagami in LCR could at least win in MotoGP.
In fact in the 2019 MotoGP there was only one Honda rider who was able to take the podium besides Marquez until the 15th series in Thailand ended. The racer was Crutchlow, who finished third in the Qatar MotoGP and German MotoGP races.
The reason why Marquez is so dominating in MotoGP is reflected in Lorenzo’s statement. In an interview with Motorsport, Lorenzo revealed his hopes for the Honda Racing Corporation in MotoGP 2020.
“What I will do [if I HRC] is try to design a motorcycle that can be ridden by more than one racer,” Lorenzo said.
Lorenzo’s statement above is an expression of frustration for Honda riders, except for Marquez, this season. The reason is, only Marquez is able to ride the 2019 RC213V motorcycle perfectly. While the other three riders have difficulty adapting to the more aggressive RC213V.
From the beginning HRC Technical Manager Takeo Yokoyama said Honda’s main focus last year was to make the RC213V 2019 engine more powerful in the straight lane in order to keep pace with Ducati’s Desmosedici speed. Yokoyama claimed he was not worried that Honda would make the RC213V engine more aggressive, because he was sure that Marquez could handle it.
“We know this motorcycle is more difficult than last season, because our target is to have an engine with maximum power, because we know we have Marquez who can face a variety of difficult problems with motorbikes. We decided to do it, and as expected, Marquez could coping well, even better than we expected, “Yokoyama said.
HRC made the 2019 RC213V engine based on the belief that Marquez could use it perfectly in the 2019 MotoGP, but not the other three Honda riders. So it can be concluded that Honda made the right engine ‘only’ for Marquez. That is the answer why Marquez and Honda have mastered MotoGP in the last few seasons.
The combination of the development of the right Honda motorcycle plus Marquez’s aggressive and fearless racing style is a fitting combination that cannot be shaken by the other manufacturers’ teams in MotoGP.
To find out how Marquez mastered the RC213V motorcycle can be seen from the record time at the MotoGP Thailand, last weekend. At that time Marquez won the race with a 29-second advantage over Nakagami, 33 seconds over Crutchlow and 54 seconds from Lorenzo.
“Marquez is not only Honda’s best rider, but also in MotoGP, so it is difficult for Honda to change our motorbikes for us, because Marquez can continue to win. That’s the problem. If I were the HRC boss, I would do the same thing,” Crutchlow said.
Thank you to Pedrosa
Honda and Marquez’s success in dominating MotoGP is also inseparable from the role of Dani Pedrosa. How come? Because Pedrosa was unable to keep pace with Marquez’s speed during being an Ant of Cervera teammate during 2013-2018.
Had Pedrosa been able to compensate for the number of Marquez’s wins in MotoGP, Honda might not have just focused on developing RC213V based only on Marquez’s ‘will’. Honda’s focus can be divided and potentially unable to develop the RC213V perfectly.
That is one reason why Honda’s rival team is unable to fight. Yamaha is divided into focus between receiving input from Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales in developing the M1. The name Rossi is more selling, but the fact is that Vinales has won more victories in MotoGP since 2017.
Likewise Ducati. Andrea Dovizioso is indeed the most dominant rider in the Italian team, but apparently Ducati has not been able to provide Desmodovi the ideal motorcycle to beat Marquez.
The conclusion is that Marquez and Honda are the right combination, and the dominance of The Baby Alien has the opportunity to continue in MotoGP in the next few seasons.
