Why Honda's main 2019 MotoGP concern is not Lorenzo

Although the rest of its riders are having problems adapting to its bike in 2019, Honda's only worry is to make sure that Marc Marquez is happy where he is in MotoGP.

Jorge Lorenzo's six crashes so far this season matches the number he suffered across the whole of the 2018 season with Ducati. The triple world champion did not race at Assen last Sunday after he suffered his latest shunt in practice in the Netherlands, and he will be missing when the action resumes this weekend in Germany. Lorenzo is continuing to recover from that monumental crash, which left him with two fractured vertebrae.

Missing the Assen and Sachsenring rounds will take Lorenzo's tally to six missed races out of the last thirteen, including four as a Ducati rider last season and these two for Honda so far in 2019. But Lorenzo's woes since signing for Honda are merely symptomatic of any rider trying to master the RC213V this year.

All of them, that is, except one: the only rider to throw into question what appears to be the simplest diagnosis for the Honda problem.

Marc Marquez is the focus for the most powerful factory in the championship and there is no better way for him to justify its faith than with the numbers he has posted since arriving in MotoGP in 2013.

Five out of six titles, virtually every 'youngest rider' record going, and an edge of superiority reflected in the current standings - he holds a substantial lead (44 points over Andrea Dovizioso) after winning half of the eight races in 2019 so far and only failing to finish in the top two on one occasion - when he crashed out at Austin.

Such rampant form sits in stark contrast to the podium drought suffered by his factory colleagues, with Cal Crutchlow the only other Honda rider to have taken a rostrum vist this year (in Qatar in the opening round).

Lorenzo and Crutchlow have been the most vocal in their criticism of this year's RC213V, constantly speaking out to highlight the issues with the bike. Takaaki Nakagami, meanwhile, is riding last year's model, and his good form with it should guarantee a new contract for 2020.

It is curious because - depending on who you listen to - you could be forgiven for thinking that Honda is on the ropes, when in reality any other constructor would love to be in its shoes.

But if you talk to all parties and take a moment to step back from the situation, it becomes clear that Honda's 'problems' are, in fact, singular: keeping Marquez where he is.

Honda really only has one problem right now, which is simply to make sure that prized asset Marquez has no plans to leave the company in the short or long term

The complaints from Lorenzo and Crutchlow may well be completely justified because, for them, the current prototype is limiting. But when another rider is able to take the very same machine and dominate a championship in the way that Marquez is doing, their argument loses weight.

A "plan" that Lorenzo suggests will "try and make the Honda easier for others to ride" makes perfect sense to him. But in the end, this argument is merely the strongest one he can suggest.

Wayne Rainey describes it perfectly: "The main problem for Jorge and the other Honda riders is Marc, who rides the bike in a completely different way. It is the factory's responsibility to make something that doesn't just work for Marquez but for Lorenzo too."

At this juncture, the name of Dani Pedrosa emerges, and the importance KTM put on acquiring his services as a test rider makes perfect sense.

Even though he never quite achieved his dream of winning a MotoGP title, nobody can question Pedrosa's ability to set up a bike. Casey Stoner won the title in 2011 on an RC213V developed by Pedrosa, as did Marquez in '13 and '14.

"Almost all of the riders could ride with Dani's set-up, but nobody can ride with Marc's," a source from Honda, who prefers not to be named, told Autosport.

Pedrosa's exit and the nasty injury suffered by Crutchlow in Australia at the end of 2018 put the emphasis for development of the '19 project onto Marquez, which is another reason why the bike suits him so much more than the others.

Next to give his opinion on this subject is Mick Doohan, the five-time premier class world champion between 1994 and '98 - the Honda standard-bearer of his era.

"What's happening is that there are people trying to make out that the problem is bigger than it is," Doohan says in conversation with Autosport.

"It is not right to take credit away from Honda for what they have done. Marc is the best rider, no matter what bike he is riding. If a rider like Pedrosa was able to push him as hard as he did and beat him from time to time, that means other riders should be able to as well. The bike is good because Marc is winning on it. The only problem they could have is if Marquez gets injured and misses a bunch of races this season, or if for some reason he decides to leave."

With that in mind, Honda really only has one problem right now, which is simply to make sure that its prized asset has no plans to leave the company in the short or long term.

But this is an unlikely scenario - firstly, because Marquez's driving force is to continue winning titles and he is perfectly aware that his partnership with the Honda factory makes this possible.

At Honda the five-time world champion now has everything at his disposal, which hasn't always happened.

For his latest contract, which he signed in 2018 and runs until the end of '20, the financial aspect was important - it is estimated to be worth around €15m a year - but there were other decisive factors too, such as an agreement to run a European-based testing team led by Stefan Bradl.

The fact that all of these matters were negotiated by Alberto Puig - Honda's team manager since taking over from Livio Suppo in 2018 - was another aspect that made things smoother for Marquez.

"From our side, we will do everything in our hands to make sure that Marc is happy with us and not considering leaving," says Puig.

It's not as if the #93 rider doesn't like money, but it certainly doesn't form such a central part of the negotiations as it might do in other cases on the grid. In fact, the only Spanish riders in MotoGP that still live in the place they were born and are liable to the tax implications of doing so, are Marquez and Tito Rabat.