Marquez gets realistic for this season

As he struggles to find a set-up path with the 2022 Honda, Marc Marquez confesses that “now is not the moment to battle for the podium” in MotoGP.

 

 

He returned for last week’s Americas GP, when he finished sixth after a remarkable comeback from last place when his bike broke down and he could barely get away.

 

Marquez believes he lacks the performance to compete for wins at every circuit in the European part of the season, which begins next weekend in Portugal, but that now is not the time to concentrate about podiums

 

 

 

Marquez is now in 13th place in the standings, with only 21 points out of a potential 100.

 

“Now we need to figure out what our level is on European tracks,” Marquez said at COTA. “I don’t think it’s the level to challenge for the win every race.”

 

“But there’s another thing: in a circuit I know well [COTA], I know exactly where the bike’s weak points are.”

 

“I’ve already pushed Honda to say, ‘You have to work there and there’ if you want to be competitive in the upcoming races.'”

 

 

“You can’t go into a Grand Prix and say, ‘This one I’m going to win, this one I’m going to finish in the top five, this one I’m going to finish in the top ten.’

 

 

 

“You have no idea.” During the weekend, you must accept your current position; if you are 10th, you must accept your current position.

 

“But, of course, I’ll take the risk, because my goal is to finish on the podium in every race.” But this is not the time to compete for the top spot.”

 

Pol Espargaro, Marquez’s teammate, finished 13th in the COTA race after suffering from food poisoning, and is the only Honda rider to reach the podium thus far in 2022, after finishing third in Qatar.