Ahead of MotoGP 2023, Alberto Puig feels that Marc Marquez is still in line with Honda’s philosophy. MotoGP 2023 is just counting the days. The first series of the season will be held at the Alrgave International Circuit, Portugal, this weekend. The 2023 Portugal MotoGP series is scheduled to take place on March 24-26 2023, starting from free practice, sprint races, to final races.
Before competing, the 2023 MotoGP participating teams, including Repsol Honda, have already tested their motorbikes in the official pre-season test session. The last test was held at the Algarve Circuit, but Marc Marquez has not found the desired result. The Baby Alien is still dissatisfied because it was only able to sit in 14th place in the combined pre-season test results.
Marquez recorded the best lap time of 1 minute 38.778 seconds, 0.8 seconds adrift from the fastest rider Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati). Doubts began to envelop Honda and Marquez, who were still the main force.
In fact, the movements of the 30-year-old racer from Spain continue to show disappointment with Honda, which has still not been able to get out of the crisis. Even worse, Alberto Puig even frankly began to admit that Honda was indeed not ready to sail MotoGP 2023.
“To be honest, we are not where we want to be yet but we think we know what we can do,” admits Puig. “However, after Portugal (test), if you ask now if I am 100 percent satisfied with our situation, I will definitely say no. We still have to improve and that is our main goal and what we are going to do,” said the man from Spain.
Repsol Honda Manager Alberto Puig admitted that his team was still having trouble developing the RC213V’s performance until the 2023 MotoGP pre-season test ended. Under these conditions, Puig will not have high expectations of being able to achieve good results.
Nevertheless, Puig still believes that Marquez’s potential and ability can make up for the lack of the RC213V when it comes down to the race session later. According to him, the most important thing right now is that Marquez is still in line with Honda’s philosophy of not giving up.
“He will show his experience and potential,” said Puig on Tuesday (21/3/2023). “We are realistic in terms of time, and we are still far from outstanding riders,” added the man from Spain. “These are facts and reality, also the reality is that Honda’s philosophy is never to give up,” said Puig.
