The six-time MotoGP world champion was the first Honda across the line last week at Portimao, but was 16 seconds off the win down in sixth spot having been expected to fight for the podium.
All Honda riders have made complaints about the marque’s radically overhauled challenger for 2022 in recent rounds despite the bike being met with praise at the pre-season tests and the first round of the campaign.
Marquez has always been sceptical of the 2022 bike, however, as its rear-biased design ethos has made it harder for him to utilise his key riding strength of braking.
Ahead of the Jerez race this weekend, Marquez says Honda has ideas to try on the bike, while he feels he has his own improvements to make.
“Of course, in Portimao we were too far,” Marquez said on Thursday at Jerez. “OK, you can check [the result], sixth position was not bad.
“But we were too far from the podium, from the victory. We struggled a lot in the race.
“But anyway, we will try to find the way to be faster here in Jerez.
“Of course, already we have some ideas to try not only on the bike, but also myself.
“I need to keep improving and we are working on it. We will see how we start in FP1 and from that point start to understand a direction.”
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Dorna
After the Portimao race, Marquez’s team-mate Pol Espargaro said the bike suffered from a lack of rear grip – something the new design philosophy was meant to eradicate.
At Jerez, Marquez said the big issue is how the bike turns on tighter circuits and isn’t sure how long it will take Honda to find a permanent fix.
“This is the big question,” Marquez, who is 38 points off the championship lead currently, replied when asked how long he feels it will take to fix the bike’s issues.
“It’s true that it’s a bike that in a big circuit that is working really good, like we saw in the pre-season in Malaysia, in Qatar.
“But as soon as we arrive to small circuits and you need to…
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