MotoGP, Tension is growing in Honda: summit between Marquez and Aoyama at Mugello

Mugello proved to be a high-tension race for Honda's top management. After losing both Joan Mir and Alex Rins to injury, with the Majorcan injuring his little finger in a practice crash and the Catalan injuring his tibia and fibula during the Sprint, Honda Motor Executive Vice President and Executive Representative Shinji Aoyama found himself in a face-to-face with Marc Marquez, in a 25-minute meeting held on Sunday morning in the motorhome of the Japanese team.

As reported by Motorsport.com, together with the eight-time world champion and the Honda Motor number 2, the president of Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), Koji Watanabe and Marquez's manager, Jimmy Martínez were also present at the meeting. While HRC director Tetsuhiro Kuwata only participated in the first five minutes, both technical manager Shinichi Kokubu and team manager Alberto Puig were excluded.

A situation that illustrates the increasingly tense climate that reigns in Honda, which right at Mugello arrived at one of its most critical points of the season, with a new crash by Marc Marquez at Bucine on the sixth lap of the Italian GP, due to a violent shaking of the front.

“We must take more risks than the others to be there and that hurts all Honda riders in general and that's why we have so many crashes. All the Honda riders are forced to take too many risks and it can't go on like this" thundered the Spaniard at the end of the race, increasingly disappointed and frustrated by the limits of the RC213V, which don't allow the eight-time world champion to express his full potential, right now that he has put the ordeal of injuries behind him.

Only Alex Rins at Austin has managed to take Honda to victory in these first six rounds of the year, in which the Japanese giant managed to scrape together a total of just 79 points, which relegates it to the penultimate place in the constructors' standings. Followed only by Yamaha, bringing up the rear of the World Championship with 64 points and only two bikes. An intolerable situation in the eyes of Marc, who awaits a clear and immediate reaction from the Golden Wing manufacturer, which is ever closer to losing its top rider.

It should be noted that Yoshishige Nomura, the man who eliminated Nakamoto and Livio Suppo in one fell swoop - is no longer part of the management as reported by the Honda website as he is officially on his way towards retirement. Another sign that the wind is changing.