they have painted themselves
into a corner. With a single ge-
nius rider, they have developed
their bike around his very unique
style. It has proved increasingly
harder for other riders to achieve
success on the mighty RC213V
over recent years. As shown last
year when he was absent. Not
a single win and just two podi-
ums—both highly uncharacteris-
tic second places for the plucky
but still inexperienced class
rookie Alex Marquez.
P146
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
MARQUEZ
AND
THE
DANGER
FACTOR
that favors him physically—mainly
left-hand corners putting less
stress on his still weak and
painful right shoulder and upper
arm—he can show it. Hence the
win in Sachsenring, and also his
potential at Aragon and COTA,
where he has been dominant in
the past.
But the fact of physical weak-
ness remains, no matter how
much he would like to ignore it.
Then there's the pressure from
Honda. Over the past few years,
I
t seems I am not the only
one who is getting scared by
Marc Marquez. The wounded
genius, according to British
road-racing legend John Mc-
Guinness, is currently a danger
to himself and to other riders,
and a liability to Honda.
Writing in the veteran (and
indeed last surviving) Brit-
ish motorcycle weekly MCN,
McGuinness notes his accident
rate, underlined by yet another
first-lap mishap in the British GP.
Marc admitted himself he'd
overcooked the optimism, in a
wild move on Jorge Martin that
took both of them down and out
before they'd even completed
half a lap of Silverstone.
As almost always, thanks to
awesomely good safety gear and
plenty of run-off, they both got
away with it uninjured. But when
it comes to pushing your luck,
statistics confirm what common
sense dictates—the less times
you fall off, the less likely you are
to get hurt.
Marquez is doubly under pres-
sure.
Most of all, from himself.
Nobody can achieve what he
has without driving himself to the
absolute limit, constantly. No
let-up.
His skill and courage remain
unquestionable, and on a track
