Honda had a 2023 season with only one victory achieved by a rider who spent most of the time injured – Álex Rins – and that wasn’t good for the manufacturer, according to Casey Stoner.
The former rider, two-time MotoGP world champion with Ducati and Honda, spoke to La Gazzetta dello Sport about the Japanese brand and recalled the victory achieved by the now Yamaha rider: ‘We saw Honda win comfortably in Austin – how can it be so bad at the end of the year? That’s my question. It can’t be that bad. Rins got injured and everything went wrong’.
He also addressed the situation of Marc Márquez, who wasn’t at his best in many aspects, leading the team to lose its way: ‘Marc had confidence issues, so there was no one to lead. Without a leader, everyone blames the bike’.
As he had already said before, it is always ‘easier’ to blame the equipment: ‘Pilots always find an excuse to explain why they are not getting results and say that the problem is the bike. Instead of going to work and saying: “I have this fantastic team, this fantastic and successful team, let’s work together and make the most of it”.’
