Marquez with his back against the wall: "only two people know my thoughts"

35 laps were enough for Marc Marquez, with a best time of 17th out of 18, on the new Honda RC213-V '24, to express a harsh opinion on the possibilities of the prototype he should ride next year. Behind him there was only his teammate Joan Mir.

The best partial times do not lie: between his time, 1.32.187 and the theoretical best, 1.32.17 there are less than two tenths, and in front of everyone is Jorge Martin with a 1.31.351 and a theoretical best of 1.31.108. Virtually one second per lap difference.

That’s an abyss of a gap that is unthinkable to make up in two months, but also between now and next year, because the competition will certainly not remain idle.

With these certainties in mind, rather than doubts, Marc showed up at a first briefing with the press in his most pissed off version ever. You might not believe - he said it - that he even has three plans in mind for his future, but there is no doubt that the impression is that of a rider who wants a change of scenery. "Only two people know my thoughts," he said today.

We were reminded of Valentino Rossi in 2012, the one who couldn't stand riding a Ducati anymore. The difference is that the Pesaro native weighed every single word, assisted by the PRs of the Bologna company, while around the Spaniard, from this point of view, there is a void.

Marc Marquez is alone. There is no one to advise him, apparently, or to stop his flow of words which are stones thrown at the No. 1 manufacturer in the world. When he states that he is tired of promises, that his judgment is now based on facts and that, yes, he is confronted with a new face whose name he can't even remember and who should be the new project leader of HRC, you can only remain horrified and wonder why Honda is letting him speak.

At this point we cannot understand why Dorna, in the person of Carmelo Ezpeleta, was so stubbornly opposed to KTM's request to have two more bikes on the grid: it would have solved Acosta and Marc's problem in one fell swoop.

The problem of the future of Honda and the sponsor Repsol must not prevent the normal course of negotiations in a sport. After all, FIFA does not decide the formation of club teams.

Also because if Marquez really (and finally) made the decision to abandon Honda it would be such an earthquake as to force the organizers to review their strategy. In what way?

It's difficult to say, but there might also be a total reversal of decisions already made. Two more KTMs? A more advanced Ducati Gresini? There is everything and the opposite of everything, because MotoGP in 2024 simply cannot do without a rider like Marquez, no more and no less than it was able to do without Valentino.

Indeed, the current situation is even worse, because Fabio Quartararo is also missing among the protagonists. And Pecco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi are characters who are still too immature to produce a sporting narrative worthy of MotoGP.

Furthermore, unlike its counterpart, Formula 1, which has Ferrari as the fulcrum of its global narrative, MotoGP is still largely a sport that relies on its protagonists, rather than on brands and teams.

And unless, but we don't know in what way, the narrative of the all-Ducati duel between Bagnaia-Bezzecchi-Martin completely changes, we don't see any further possibility of growth if the trio is not called upon to compete with Marc and Fabio.

We had the demonstration last week when the media gave a lot of space to the Marquez-Gresini affair and to make up for those who would actually have been the protagonists on the track they were forced to resort to the sad figure of the superhero thanks to a blow on the butt and a sprained finger.

Attention: Pecco risked a lot in the crash of Barcelona and certainly in recent days he was not one hundred percent (and this also applies to Bezzecchi), but the rhetorical figure of a hero returning to the trenches was widely and deliberately exaggerated.

And we stop here because it is not the topic of our article. And we don't even want to make a list of motorcycle racers who have returned to the bike in a precarious physical condition.

Marquez's position, rather, seems to us to be that of Ferrari which, when it is in clear difficulty, always bandies around the idea of retiring, only to then change its mind when all or part of its requests are granted. It also happened at the end of last season when the red team was not entered as an engine supplier for the 2026 Formula 1 season with the new rules on December 1st in protest at the fact that Red Bull Powertrain Limited was considered a new manufacturer.

What is not clear, however, is what Marquez really wants. We can only imagine that it is a competitive factory bike, a Ducati or KTM. He knows he deserves it, but also that he has opposition from the powers that be.

We know the criticism: Honda has done a lot for Marquez's career, including paying him seven-figure figures for three seasons in which he virtually didn't race. But these are ethical arguments. Sport is about commitment and results. No high-level sportsman can accept seeing his career compromised by problems external to his commitment.