World champion Marc Márquez and his new team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, as well as two other HRC members, are fighting to be fit for the new season …
Photo: MotoGP
There are always lots of foot injuries in the MotoGP paddock – that’s the game’s downside – but rarely have so many riders recovered from serious injuries or are completely absent at the first test last season.
In Sepang, Marc Marquez was taking care of his left shoulder, which was still healing; Cal Crutchlow had a steel ankle; Tito Rabat hobbled about with a battered thighbone; and Jorge Lorenzo was at home working on a recently broken wrist.
Unsurprisingly, the main focus was on the reigning world champion, who admitted he won’t be fully fit for the GP for the season opener in Qatar on March 10th.
Marquez’s shoulder was in much worse condition than expected when surgeons operated on it last December. As soon as he was knocked out for surgery, the shoulder popped out of his shoulder simply because he was no longer using his muscles to locate the humeral bone. Due to the severity of the tendon damage, the operation took four hours, not the planned 90 minutes.
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The 26-year-old had physical therapist Carlos Garcia with him in Sepang, and all three days of his testing program were sorted according to the condition of the shoulder. He drove for short days, being careful not to overload and inflame the joint, which could delay his rehab regime by five hours a day.
“The most important thing is to listen to my body and stop when my body says stop,” said the 26-year-old, aiming to win a sixth MotoGP title in seven years. “The shoulder is worse than I expected, but better than the doctors expected!
“The big difference for me is that I can’t use my usual driving style because of the shoulder, because when I drive normally, my energy drops immediately and I have less strength and more pain, so I have to drive more calmly, which is strange it’s not my instinct or my style.
“Because of this, we haven’t tried all of the items we needed to try, because it’s easy to get lost when I can’t drive the way I want. So we keep changing the plan to try big things instead of working on the little details, because to do that I have to drive the way I want to drive. “
Marquez evaluated various chassis in Sepang, but without definite benefits. He also tested a radical aero set and a bike that came with a smaller version of Ducati’s salad box. Maybe a bento box? He spent the tests on carbon fiber swing arms, which he used on all seven of his 2018 race wins, but test driver Stefan Bradl (who was under contract for the injured Lorenzo) spent most of his time on light metal swing arms. Does this mean Lorenzo might prefer an aluminum swingarm?
As usual, Márquez’s main focus in the preseason was on the engine, as the season assignment of every driver with seven engines is sealed before the first race. However, the team can continue to work on all other aspects of bike development throughout the season.
“My goal is to arrive 100 percent in Argentina for the second race. I don’t think I’ll be 100 percent in the first race, but I hope and believe that Qatar won’t be a big problem. The most important thing is to follow my body.
“It will be a very competitive season for sure: Both Yamahas will be there, [Andrea] Dovizioso will be there and Suzuki has a good rhythm now. I expect the same riders at the top – the names at the top are always the same. “
Marquez’s fitness worries may give his rivals a head start in the 2019 title race, but Dovizioso isn’t so sure. “Maybe we have an advantage at the beginning,” says the Italian. “But I think everyone knows Marc – he’s an animal! He is very strong and I don’t think he will have any limits. “
Photo: Mat Oxley
Marquez’s Spanish compatriot Tito Rabat, whose career was jeopardized by that horrific high-speed accident at Silverstone, hobbled hard at Sepang and seemed happier on a bike than on foot. His speed on his Avintia GP18 – just over five months since he broke his right femur in four – was astounding.
“I feel tired but the leg is way better than I thought so I can ride and walk fast,” he said. “I think I can be 100 percent for Qatar – the recovery was very slow in the beginning, but it’s getting faster now.”
Meanwhile, in Europe, Lorenzo is continuing the rehabilitation of the left scaphoid that he broke during field training in Italy last month. The fracture of that tiny and pesky bone was screwed right away, but Lorenzo knew that if he rode in Sepang, he could only make matters worse. Do you remember his trip to the Malaysia GP last October when that same wrist was healed from his GP accident in Thailand and he only managed a few laps before going home?
“I’m happy with my recovery,” said Lorenzo from home. “The wrist is getting stronger every day. Maybe I’m not 100 percent fit to test in Qatar [the final preseason outing on February 23/24/25] but I think I’ll be able to ride. I’ll be stronger in the first race but it’s difficult to know how strong I am now. “
HRC is not having a good time with injuries right now. Márquez, Lorenzo and Crutchlow are all injured.
And Repsol Honda team manager Alberto Puig, who broke an arm in a motocross crash last week and was unable to take part in the Sepang tests.
Crutchlow: 111 days off, 0.5 seconds from the top
Photo: Mat Oxley
At Sepang, Cal Crutchlow rode a motorcycle for the first time on Wednesday morning since losing the front at 150 mph during practice for the Australian GP in October.
That is 111 days without motorcycles and yet he finished the three days as sixth fastest and only 0.541 seconds ahead of the top.
“Just releasing the clutch felt strange,” he said at the end of the first day.
What was less expected was that the Briton’s terrible injury to his right ankle caused him few problems while riding his Honda RC213V in the debilitating 30 degrees Celsius heat. The ankle was badly bruised in the accident, and the talus bone alone was broken in 17 places. The injury required multiple surgeries and a fixator device.
The ankle is now held together with a large steel plate and screws that will most likely last a lifetime. The worst pain for Crutchlow is caused by the lower part of the plate pressing against his skin through the ankle bone. He also had problems with nerve and tendon damage that forced him to drop out of rehab in December, and with some holes left by the fixator.
Prior to testing, there were concerns that the injury could affect his ability to ride a MotoGP bike. So much so that his LCR team added a thumb-operated rear brake in case the ankle didn’t move enough to use a traditional foot brake.
“It’s a lot better than I expected,” said Crutchlow, wearing a right boot that was two sizes larger than the usual side. “The first few laps were terrible because the trunk I ordered was too big – my own fault – and I was struggling to get to the rear brake and my control of the foot on the brake is not fantastic right now. I learned to ride again, it was that easy and it felt really good to ride again. I can be competitive this season. “
Crutchlow started testing with a 2018 RC213V and then had two 2019 bikes to work on with his crew.
“I’m impressed with the new bike, it’s definitely stronger in some areas. Most of all, I’m very happy with the ankle. If I get out of bed in the morning, I can’t walk for 20 minutes, then it’s okay, even though I still don’t have 100 percent movement.
“The good thing is that I can put my foot on the brakes so I don’t have to use thumb brakes because they’re really hard to get used to. Worst of all, since I started testing, I’ve had a pinched nerve on the back of my neck that is killing me. “
On the last day of the test, Crutchlow tried a radical HRC aero set that emerged directly from Star Wars and (like all aero) had “its strengths and weaknesses”.
[Painful looking Crutchlow injury graphic in gallery below – ed.]