It’s the news that every HRC engineer and every Honda Fanboy has been waiting to hear – Marc Marquez will return to MotoGP for the next race.
But is it good news for the general public? Let’s find out…
The Good
MotoGP has been a bit stale recently. The racing’s fair and all the riders have a lot of respect for each other. Where’s the fun in that? Oh for the days when Foggy would be trading blows in the pitlane with Franky Chilli dressed in his nightie over which Ducati had the most significant advantage over the other bikes.
The last handful of races have just been a million Ducatis riding around line-astern not wanting to upset the top-wops so as to fall down in the pecking order of new aero-parts. And the once ‘fly in the passata’ Fabio Quartarararo has been MIA as Italy has territorially pissed over France.
But those 45 minutes of boredom could be changing. Love him or loathe him Marquez usually brings some fairing bashing antics and optimistic passing attempts with him to each race. And when he’s not upsetting riders on track he’s usually upsetting his haters by stealing tows off other riders in qualifying.
And what if Marc’s duff shoulder is actually fixed? And his magic is regained? Having a fast, unpredictable rider (that’s not affiliated to any of the championship contenders) mixing it up with the race leaders will add a fantastic element to the championship battle.
The Bad
Is it too early? When Marc last made his comeback from injury (which was the time after the time before and after, after the time before, before) all the newly appointed social media medical experts confidently claimed that ‘one crash’ would see the end of his career. Obviously they were wrong – it took four. But with each and every return the number of crashes before the ‘big one’ has worryingly decreased faster than Bradley’s ebbing hairline.
The Spaniard’s shoulder is currently as brittle as seasoned chalk. But he wants to get back to racing. Honda, being the responsible employers that they are, were keen not to rush Marquez back onto their bike…until they recalled just how horrendous their heap of Repsol branded junk was then remembered they were actually unresponsible employers and egged the Spaniard back onto the bike. What’s one man’s future mobility compared to their current shame?
And it’s not like Marc doesn’t fall off. He makes Alex Rins look like a sturdy redwood. And that was when he was winning. Now Marquez is coming back to race on a bike that’s lethal, having been out of action for months and knowing Honda are relying on him to save their dishonoured noodles. It’s a potential recipe for injury.
The Ugly
With Rossi retired and Marquez in recovery the MotoGP internet has been a place of calmness. The bitter fans have struggled to find anything to hate and have drifted off to twitch uncomfortably in the corner of their parent’s basement.
Sadly they’ll be back. Like a fungal infection that keeps flaring up. But hopefully it’ll be a small price to pay for some entertainment on track.