Marc Marquez shares the blunt salary message he delivered to Honda in MotoGP exit talks

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Marc Marquez and Honda formed perhaps the greatest partnership in MotoGP history. Few duos in motorsport as a whole can rival this one.

Marquez won six titles on Honda machinery, the first as a rookie in 2013. Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was the only rider to interrupt his streak in 2015.

At the start of the delayed 2020 season, Marquez suffered a complex break in his arm. The injury at the Spanish Grand Prix would ultimately lead to multiple surgeries.

He missed the entire season and wouldn’t complete a full campaign again until 2024. While he won three races in that period, Honda started to slip down the order.

By 2023, they had fallen to the bottom of the constructors’ standings. The German Grand Prix weekend epitomised their downfall, with Marquez opting to withdraw after five crashes.

The Spaniard took the bombshell decision to leave thereafter. He joined Ducati satellite team Gresini – a route to the dominant factory bike.

Marc Marquez told Honda they were wasting his record-breaking salary

Speaking on Spanish chat show El Hormiguero, Marquez recalled his Honda exit. He says his ‘mental health’ had suffered.

Even though he had ‘the highest salary that ever existed’, what he really wanted was a winning bike. After everything they’d achieved, he didn’t want to force his way out, so he proposed a mutual split.

Marquez rather bluntly informed Honda that they were wasting their money because he couldn’t deliver the kind of results that justified his wages.

The Ant of Cervera had little interest in a long-term project to take them back to the top. He joined Gresini to see if he could still compete with the best on the right machinery.

• READ MORE: Everything to know about Marc Marquez from net worth to girlfriend

“I was in the best team in the history of the championship, I had the highest salary that has ever existed, but above all was my mental health,” he said. “Without it, you can’t get on a bike at 350 km/h,”

“Honda at that time and at that moment did not have a winning project, and the decision came from me. I sat down with them and proposed to leave by mutual agreement, without forcing anything.

“I told them: ‘You are paying this to a rider who right now cannot win with this bike’. I am not a rider to develop a bike, I am a rider with a mentality to win. I told them I was going to a satellite team, because I want to understand if I am still competitive.”

Honda may feel betrayed by Marc Marquez’s first statement in Ducati race suit

Marquez quickly removed any doubts over his competitiveness. He won three Grands Prix last season on a year-old bike, as well as a Sprint, en route to third in the championship.

Even though Jorge Martin went on to win the championship, it was Marquez who earned a factory ride next to Francesco Bagnaia. He now has a glorious chance to win a seventh premier class title and match Valentino Rossi.

Marquez said red is ‘his colour’ as he pulled on the Ducati overalls for the first time. The implication that it was meant to be may upset his former team.

He was vindicated by their dismal 2024 as they once again propped up the table. However, Honda engineers are getting excited after seeing promising signs during winter testing.