Amid Marc Marquez’s fresh injury layoff, HRC team manager Alberto Puig voices prospects for 2023 Honda
development.
In the Honda factory team in the MotoGP World Championship, it is hoped that the currently unfit star rider Marc Marquez will be able to get back on the RC213V before the end of the year, if “only” for testing. Because in terms of the technical development of the bike for 2023, Marquez is extremely important for the technicians at Honda Racing Corporation (HRC).
In early June, Marquez underwent what is now his fourth operation on his right upper arm, which he broke in Jerez in July 2020, in the USA. The latest update on Marquez’s recovery sounded promising. When the eight-time motorbike world champion will be able to make his comeback, however, is currently still open.
HRC team manager Alberto Puig hopes that Marquez will be able to ride again before the turn of the year. There will be three official MotoGP test days in 2022. There will be two days of testing in Misano at the beginning of September and one day in Valencia at the beginning of November. In both cases, the tests will take place after the Grand Prix at the respective circuit.
At Honda they hope to be able to complete at least one of the two tests with Marquez. “If it is possible, it would be best if he could test the bike in the autumn, say at the end of the year. That would be the best for our engineers to understand which direction to go,” Puig says.
At the same time, however, Puig makes it clear that Marquez’s health comes first. “The priority is the full recovery of his arm. There is no doubt at all that that is the most important thing,” the Honda team manager refers to Marc Marquez’s ongoing ordeal since July 2020.
