
Marc Marquez suggested Honda return ‘if your rider finishes top five in 2024’
Marc Marquez reportedly told Honda bosses he would come back to the team after a year apart if their bike improved – but they dismissed the idea.
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Marc Marquez, MotoGP sprint race, Dutch MotoGP, 24 June
Marc Marquez, MotoGP sprint race, Dutch MotoGP, 24 June
Marquez has confirmed he will bring an end to his 11-year spell at Honda at the end of 2023, when it is expected that he will join Gresini Ducati on a one-year deal.
The six-time MotoGP champion “promised, before his Japanese bosses, to return in 2025, as long as Honda prove to have taken a step forward in 2024 and once again have a competitive motorcycle,” El Periodico report.
Marquez suggested he would come back to Honda “if one of your riders simply finishes in the top five at the end of the next world championship,” the report claims.
His offer “surprised the top of HRC” but was then “flatly rejected”.
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Honda want to begin their post-Marquez era by trying to improve without using his possible return as an incentive, it is reported.
The offer from Marquez was a part of “sincere and open” conversations with Honda bosses Hikaru Tsukamoto and Koji Watanabe.
Although Tsukamoto and Watanabe’s stance was described as having “a point of rigidity” when negotiating with
their star rider.
F1 News: Daniel Ricciardo Disappointed With RB Upgrades – ‘Haven’t Perfected It Right Now’
- Daniel Ricciardo expresses disappointment with RB’s car upgrades after underperforming in qualifiers at the Spanish Grand Prix despite adjustments made to the car’s setup and aerodynamics.
Alex Harrington | 57 Minutes Ago
Jun 7, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; RB driver driver Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) in the pit lane during the practice session at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 7, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; RB driver driver Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) in the pit lane during the practice session at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
At the recent Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, expectations were high for RB’s Daniel Ricciardo following a batch of car upgrades based on promising results at the preceding race in Canada. However, the weekend’s outcome painted a different picture—with Ricciardo and his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, underperforming during qualifying, securing 18th and 17th positions respectively.
The Australian driver arrived optimistic, satisfied by the anticipated performance improvements. However, despite the team’s efforts to tweak the car’s setup after facing balance issues during practice, Ricciardo described the overall pace as insufficient. Even after deploying three sets of tires in the first qualifying session—a tactic that usually boosts performance—the expected improvement didn’t materialize.
Reflecting on the changes made overnight, Ricciardo noted:
“[Friday] felt like we were still trying to fight it a little bit so we did make some bigger changes overnight. So yeah, look, we probably haven’t perfected it right now and maybe that’s the encouraging thing. But I feel like we did make a good job overnight to get the car in a better place. So from a feeling, it felt better today. I had more comfort and confidence in it but unfortunately on this thing, the stopwatch, we’re still where we were.”
Ricciardo highlighted the dichotomy between the car’s feel and its performance, stating,
“I actually didn’t think the car felt too bad in quali. Of course, there are some corners where you feel it should be flat there or whatever, so you know you may be still missing a bit of load. But in general, it was I felt much better than [Friday], so to still be back where we are I think that’s still a bit more defined, I guess, so yeah I don’t know.”
Speaking about the aerodynamic adjustments made, particularly with the floor of the car—a crucial component affecting the vehicle’s aerodynamics and load—Ricciardo seemed to struggle with the currently unmet potential.
”I’d like to think there’s still a bit more on the package to figure out,”** he said.
The emotion was tangible when Ricciardo discussed his reaction to the qualifying results. “When Pierre told me P18, I didn’t really have anything to say on the radio because I was honestly quite surprised. I knew we’re not going to be at P10, but I honestly thought that would have been good enough for Q2.”
Ricciardo’s predicament highlights a broader challenge in F1 racing: the continuous fluctuation and variability in performance despite seemingly progressive technical upgrades. His teammate Tsunoda, experiencing similar issues, also hinted at an unexpectedly neutral response to the car’s performance in qualifying, as noted by Ricciardo:
“I haven’t spoken to Yuki yet but I don’t think he was too unhappy probably with how the car felt.”
As for the future, Ricciardo remains optimistic yet realistic about the path ahead, poised to continue refining and adapting the car’s capabilities. The racer summed up his forward-looking perspective: “But that’s something obviously we’ll keep doing. On the flip side, I do feel like [Friday] we were much more out of balance and actually today in quali the car felt much more together.”
It’s one thing to bring upgrades, but it’s another thing to understand how to extract performance from them. RB will use this weekend to extract data from their cars, and will likely come back stronger in Austria.
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