Honda had one of its most complicated seasons ever in MotoGP, and not even Álex Rins’ victory (LCR Honda) or Marc Márquez’s few podiums (Repsol Honda) hide the reality – it was one of the weakest constructors in the field, a situation that has been worsening in recent years.
In an analysis for the GPOne.com website, Carlo Pernat did not hold back on criticizing Honda, giving a very low rating: ‘I have to give Honda a grade that I have never given in my life, which is a 2. It is unacceptable that a company like this, which produces millions of motorcycles, with the budget and experience it has, has been reduced in this way. For me, it’s science fiction. I see a double mistake, both technical and human, because they didn’t understand that only Márquez was capable of riding that bike. Only Marc developed it for Marc and Honda gave it to him‘.
Pernat does not criticize Márquez specifically, but rather the path of Honda: ‘There are also three other riders on that bike, not just one. So, this was a big mistake. So, I have to give it a 2 for technical reasons, because this year we saw things that are neither in heaven nor on earth. Seeing that they tried to copy other factories… they never did it […]. Surely the engineers in Japan made mistakes, but the management on the tracks was also a failure. They lost years because of their short-sighted vision. The 2 is deserved‘.
