It’s official: MotoGP maestro Marc Márquez will leave Honda | CNN
Marc Márquez has come to an agreement with Repsol Honda Team to leave the outfit at the end of the 2023 MotoGP season.
Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images
Marc Márquez has come to an agreement with Repsol Honda Team to leave the outfit at the end of the 2023 MotoGP season.
CNN
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Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Márquez will end his 11-year association with Honda, the factory team announced Wednesday, finally ending weeks of speculation around the rider’s future.
“Honda Racing Corporation and Marc Márquez have mutually elected to terminate their four-year contract prematurely at the end of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship season,” HRC announced in a statement.
“Both parties agreed it was in their best interests to each pursue other avenues in the future to best achieve their respective goals and targets,” it continued.
There had been a year left on the contract tying the Spaniard to the Japanese team.
While his destination is yet to be confirmed, the 30-year-old is widely expected to join his brother, Álex, at the Gresini Ducati team – a satellite outfit, but one which offers one of the sport’s most successful riders in history a chance to compete once more at the front of the grid.
In an emotional social media post following Honda’s announcement, Márquez shared what he said was a message to one of his team.
TOPSHOT – Mooney VR46 Racing Team’s Italian rider Marco Bezzecchi steers his bike during the Indian MotoGP Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi, on September 24, 2023. (Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP) (Photo by MONEY SHARMA/AFP via Getty Images)
“I don’t know where to begin. I don’t know if I’m doing right or wrong, I don’t know what will happen in the future, I don’t know if all this will turn out well, but what I do know is everything we have achieved together,” the post read.
“It has been the most difficult decision of my life, guided by my head and courage, not by my heart. My heart will always be you, always, that you have supported me and will support me. But I have one thing clear, I want to try to be the best rider in the world again and for that I need to enjoy it.”
Reports Wednesday suggested Márquez will not be able to take any of his team, including the highly respected crew chief, Santi Hernández, with him when he leaves.
Clive Mason/Getty Images
Márquez in action during the MotoGP of Great Britain on August 5.
With six premier class World Championships, five Triple Crowns, 59 wins, 101 podiums and 64 pole positions, the Márquez-Honda relationship has been one of the most successful in motorcycle racing history.
However, both manufacturer and rider have endured a nightmarish 2023 season, as the rider struggled to regain his form following four surgeries on his arm after a horror crash at the beginning of the 2020 campaign.
This year’s Repsol Honda machine has also proven difficult to master, with Márquez enduring 14 crashes before the MotoGP summer break alone, while Ducati has widened the gap at the front by delivering a bike on which multiple riders have been able
to achieve convincing wins.
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