To say that Honda is going through its worst moment in decades is no longer news. In 2020, it completed its worst season in the premier class since the creation of its current competition division, HRC, in 1982, ending the year without a victory for the first time.
Last season was marked by the injury of Marc Márquez in the first grand prix in Jerez, which left the golden wing brand without its benchmark and the rider who had won six of the last seven MotoGP titles. The Catalan reappeared this year in Portimao , after 265 days off and having missed the double appointment in Qatar.
The #93 returned to rescue Honda after its worst start to the season, which for the first time in HRC history failed to put a rider in the top 4 in the first two races of the year.
The return of Márquez only served to calm the waters somewhat. The 2021 RC213V has shown itself to be a critical motorcycle – as defined by its own riders – with which it is very easy to fall. All this led to the man from Lleida giving a warning to Honda in Assen asking to “improve the electronics for a safety issue”, after suffering a hair-raising fall very similar to the one that caused the injury that kept him out for eight months. .
That fall was just one more in the long list that Márquez accumulates. With the three he suffered at Silverstone, the two in Aragon, the one he suffered in FP3 at Misano and then in qualifying, he now has 20 and leads the MotoGP ranking despite having missed out on two grand prix.
Look at the photos of the sequence of the fall of Marc Márquez and Jorge Martín in the British GP before continuing reading
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
The falls of the Honda riders in the 2021 MotoGP season
Apart from the sparks of genius of Marc Márquez at Sachsenring to win, at Aragón to be second, and Pol Espargaró in Great Britain to take pole, Honda’s numbers do not lie. His best rider in the standings is the one from Cervera, 9th with 92 points and crashes in five of the 12 races he has contested this year.
If the eight-time world champion’s stats this year are bad, Honda’s are no better. The character of the RC213V is dragging its pilots to the ground. Between Marc Márquez (20), Pol Espargaró (15), Takaaki Nakagami (7), Alex Márquez (14) and Stefan Bradl (2) add up to 58 of the 197 falls that have been seen in 2021 in MotoGP (29.44%) . And that there are six manufacturers and they only have four motorcycles for the eight that Ducati lines up.
“At the moment I can’t drive as I want, as soon as I try, I crash. So I have to think about driving in another way and I can’t drive naturally,” he said after another eventful Aragon GP where he nevertheless finished second In race.
