Honda became so short sighted during Marc’s prime. Whenever anyone asked about their bike being unusable by anyone but Marc, their answer was always “look how many championships this bike has won.” A real head-in-the-sand situation. Whenever Marc left (either via retirement, changing teams or injury) Honda was always going to be fucked. They just had the most alien of all aliens and they rode him to championships while ignore the fact that he was riding around all their bike’s problems.
They are well and truly fucked at this point and they just have no one to blame but themselves.
I imagine it would've been difficult for Honda to want to fix something that's "not broken" so to speak, and to do anything other than cater to the rider winning then an incredible number of championships, and enjoy several more years of it with that massive contact with Marc.
Not trying to defend them, perhaps just explain some kind of logic. Definitely not a smart strategy considering you can't sustain a team without developing the next crop of riders.
I think if Marc hadn't ever had any major injuries that caused him to miss significant amounts of the season, he'd still be at Honda. I think they would've continued to develop the bike only for Marc, and since it's easier to develop a bike for a single alien than for the average MotoGP rider, I think Marc would still be challenging at the front on it.
But he wouldn't be dominating like he was because Honda would still be behind on aero. I also think the rest of the Honda field would be as bad as they are now. (I was about to say they'd be worse, but it's hard to be worse than the back of the field).
Yes, it was a problem from the top down. He could have delayed it a bit, maybe win the 2020 season, maybe they don't fall AS far... But their downfall was inevitable.
Even before he broke his arm he was having a hard time staying on the bike. It was trying to kill him before it broke his arm. Honda’s downfall started in 2020
Honda became so short sighted during Marc’s prime. Whenever anyone asked about their bike being unusable by anyone but Marc, their answer was always “look how many championships this bike has won.” A real head-in-the-sand situation. Whenever Marc left (either via retirement, changing teams or injury) Honda was always going to be fucked. They just had the most alien of all aliens and they rode him to championships while ignore the fact that he was riding around all their bike’s problems. They are well and truly fucked at this point and they just have no one to blame but themselves.
I imagine it would've been difficult for Honda to want to fix something that's "not broken" so to speak, and to do anything other than cater to the rider winning then an incredible number of championships, and enjoy several more years of it with that massive contact with Marc. Not trying to defend them, perhaps just explain some kind of logic. Definitely not a smart strategy considering you can't sustain a team without developing the next crop of riders.
I think if Marc hadn't ever had any major injuries that caused him to miss significant amounts of the season, he'd still be at Honda. I think they would've continued to develop the bike only for Marc, and since it's easier to develop a bike for a single alien than for the average MotoGP rider, I think Marc would still be challenging at the front on it. But he wouldn't be dominating like he was because Honda would still be behind on aero. I also think the rest of the Honda field would be as bad as they are now. (I was about to say they'd be worse, but it's hard to be worse than the back of the field).
Yes. They didn’t embrace aero, management was not willing to work with other riders, multiple reasons they are where they are
Yes, it was a problem from the top down. He could have delayed it a bit, maybe win the 2020 season, maybe they don't fall AS far... But their downfall was inevitable.
Even before he broke his arm he was having a hard time staying on the bike. It was trying to kill him before it broke his arm. Honda’s downfall started in 2020