Honda boss Alberto Puig rages at the ‘pure lie’ he’s read about Marc Marquez’s exit

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Marc Marquez announced he was leaving Honda in October 2023, just days after his final podium in their colours at the Japanese GP. An iconic motorsport partnership was brought to an end.

Marquez had represented the Japanese manufacturer ever since making his title-winning premier-class debut in 2013. They won six world championships together, making it the most successful combination of the MotoGP era.

But the team’s decline could not be ignored. Marquez, who suffered a career-threatening arm injury at the 2020 Spanish GP, did his best to disguise it when available.

But they slipped from first to ninth in the standings in 2020 and repeated that result in two of the next three seasons. Marquez recognised that, if he wanted to get back to the top of MotoGP, he had to go.

He still had a year left on his Honda contract, but he reached a termination agreement. He relinquished factory rider status by joining Gresini, but that was his path to a dominant Ducati motorcycle.

Alberto Puig rubbishes talk of massive Honda offer to Marc Marquez before Ducati move

Speaking to El Periodico before the French Grand Prix, Honda’s MotoGP Alberto Puig hit out a ‘pure lie’ he’d read about Marquez’s exit.

Ducati boss Luigi Dall’Igna appeared to confirm earlier this year that Marquez rejected an enormous final offer from Honda before moving to the Italian team. There was talk of an £84m salary over four years.

But Puig is adamant that Honda didn’t resort to such measures. His policy is that he’ll open the door for any rider or staff member who wants to leave.

Honda apparently understood that Marquez was motivated by winning. Therefore, no amount of money could persuade him to stay.

“Lie! Pure lie! It’s totally false! Lie! Honda never tried to retain Marc with money,” Puig said in response to the claim. “Never. I repeat: Honda understood that it had to release him, and so it did.

“Marc didn’t ask for anything, nor did Honda demand anything in return. Never. Never. The year Marc had left on his contract was never a problem. And, I repeat, there was no offer whatsoever; that’s a lie. Marc didn’t want money, he wanted a winning bike.

“The best riders always want, pursue, the best bike. [It’s] normal. There was a moment when Marc decided that was his only goal. Like before, when he made the jump to MotoGP in 2013, he wanted the Honda, which, at the time, was the best bike.

“That’s why, when he suggested leaving the team despite having one more year on his contract with us, everyone at Honda, everyone, understood him. I was the first, as a former rider, and we tried to help him resolve his departure.

“Honda is clear about a lot of things. For example, they don’t want anyone on their team who doesn’t want to be there. If you don’t want to be at Honda, we talk and we’ll sort it out. Here we don’t want anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable with us.

Was this Marc Marquez’s worst moment as a Honda MotoGP rider?

Marquez says he had the ‘highest salary that ever existed’ during his days at Honda. But he told them they were effectively wasting their money because they no longer had a winning bike.

Now, Puig says Honda won’t sign a superstar rider until they’re contenders again. It seems they’ve heeded Marquez’s message.

It could be argued that they needed to lose Marquez, as strange it sounds. Only when he was gone would they realise the full extent of their shortcomings.

Honda’s communications boss says Marquez hit his lowest point at the 2023 German GP. At a track where he’s normally supreme, he felt he had to withdraw from the race after five crashes during the weekend.