Motorsport Week continues its end-of-season MotoGP review by reflecting on another outstanding campaign by runaway champion Marc Marquez.
There is little anyone can say that hasn’t already been said about the incredible Marc Marquez, HRC’s premier class darling who has marched to six MotoGP titles in his seven-year premier class career.
Winning a MotoGP world championship in your first year is special; strolling to 10 consecutive victories at the start of your sophomore campaign in 2014 is simply sublime, but nothing he has achieved in the past gets close to the superiority of his ’19 season.
Marquez finished 18 of the 19 rounds inside the top two positions – including a storming victory tally of 12 – while the only race he failed to score in was when he crashed out from a commanding lead in the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, caused by a technical issue.
He wrapped up his sixth premier class championship with four races remaining at the Thailand GP, while he closed out the year a staggering 151 points clear of closest challenger Andrea Dovizioso, netting a new all-time points record of 420 in total.
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What makes his ’19 achievements all the more astonishing is the competition he has had to face along the way, with rapid Yamaha duo Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales rarely letting him off the leash, while the ever-consistent Dovizioso wrapped up his third consecutive runners-up championship result as he relentlessly chases the Spaniard.
Then you have to add into the mix the factor of the tricky to master RC213-V machine, illustrated by the fact that Cal Crutchlow is the next highest Honda pilot in the points standings way down in ninth with just three rostrum finishes, while fellow MotoGP legend Jorge Lorenzo could only score a paltry 28 points in his first and ultimately final year on a HRC bike.
Of course, Honda has largely followed the direction that Marquez wanted to take the bike development in, but the sheer gulf between himself and his Honda team-mates is truly breathtaking, one that hasn’t been seen since the days of Casey Stoner and Ducati.
The key to Marquez’s best ever season is – unsurprisingly – consistency, an area he and Honda have struggled with in past campaigns.
As with any racing machine, the RC213-V has historically had its shortcomings relative to the competition, with power tracks such as Mugello and Losail its main weakness in recent years.
These circuits have been the stomping ground of the likes of Ducati’s Desmosedici, with Marquez generally having to fight to stay on the podium rather than going for wins.
Matters changed this year though, the HRC wizards having managed to bring a solid power improvement that has seen the RC213-V match the Ducati in the straight line speed department, helped in turn by the Bologna-based manufacturer’s insistence on using an ever growing catalogue of aero parts.
This has meant that while still not being able to set the pace at these venues, Marquez can at least fight for the top spot on an even-footing, crucially not having to over-ride and risk a crash.
He suffered some disappointments along the way, having come close to winning a further four races alongside the 12 he already conquered. So close was he to these wins – the Qatar, Italian, Austrian and British rounds to be precise – that if you add up all four loss margins you get a slender 0.292s.
This level of consistent speed has allowed him to employ a new tactic across the year, one in which he follows a seemingly faster rider throughout the race and then strike for victory at the end.
The best example of this was the San Marino GP, where he followed Quartararo – who had looked to be the clear pace setter all weekend – for all but one of the contests 27 tours, pouncing on the final lap to snatch a maiden victory away from the Petronas SRT man by just under a second.
It seems we may be in for more of the same next year, with Ducati – at this point at least – looking to have not made a big enough step with their GP20 to halt the Marquez charge, with the most likely force set to be a more experienced Quartararo on a factory-spec M1.
However it plays out, we need to count ourselves lucky that even though we may not be getting the most thrilling title battles in the history of the sport-we are without doubt witnessing a level of raw-talent that may never be transcended.
