Marc Marquez has reiterated he won’t be close to full fitness when the 2020 MotoGP pre-season tests get underway in Sepang next month, adding that he isn’t convinced he’ll be back to his best for the Qatar opener either.
Marquez is currently recuperating from surgery to his left shoulder, the indirect consequence of sizeable accidents in Thailand and Malaysia, even if it was a low speed slip in wet conditions at the post-season Jerez test that ultimately compounded the fracture.
Coming a year after he went under the knife for a similar injury to his right shoulder, Marquez has previously admitted he won’t be fully fit for the upcoming MotoGP tests at Sepang on February 7-9 – much like he wasn’t at the start of 2019.
However, Marquez has now expanded on that to say he will only be competing at 70% fitness in Malaysia, adding it’ll be tough for him to be full fit in time for the Qatar MotoGP opener in March.
“Of course, the shoulder at the moment is not in the perfect condition, I would like it to be in a better condition,” he said when picking an award from Mundo Deportivo.
“The recovery is going in a good way and it is true that it is a little bit slower than the last one, the previous year, because the left shoulder surgery was more complicated and more aggressive but the recovery was in a different way.
“This one is a little bit slower, but we are working hard to arrive, not 100% but a minimum of 70%, 60% for the Malaysia test but the final goal is to try to be at 100% for the Qatar race. That will be not sure, but we are on the way.”
Is Marc Marquez lulling rivals into a false sense of security?
Based on his social media posts, Marquez is clearly working hard to return to MotoGP action at the best condition possible, though some may be wary he is playing some mind games at this early point in the season.
There is only so much to be read into testing at the best of times but there could be more to learn from the way Honda approaches the three days in Sepang since it is largely relying on Marquez to develop the 2020 RC213V.
Without Marquez to shoulder the laborious work of getting data for a bike which is largely developed around him, it will fall to Cal Crutchlow to take on a bigger role.
Marquez expects to only run a limited programme to preserve his injury, but that won’t necessarily mean he stays upright the entire time. After all, his most recent damaging crash was an offline low speed thump.
From a Honda perspective, it could be facing a tougher pre-season than it has experienced for some time…
