By Dean Adams
“Alarming” might be too strong a word in this case but “interesting” is perhaps too weak.
This in regards to Marc Marquez not being cleared by his doctors to race the Qatar MotoGP race this weekend and further, his admission he will miss the next race as well (in Qatar).
Marquez tested the RC213 “streetbike” at two tracks recently and put in a decent amount of laps. His body language showed more confidence the more laps he put in. Additionally, he did a bit of fist-pumping and seemed to be of good cheer when the second test ended.
Marquez has several friends in the Spanish (and or Latin-based) press and those sources seemed to predict that Marc would race at Qatar. How they were led to this optimistic viewpoint isn’t a real mystery.
Instead, Honda issued a press release stating he’d miss the Qatar race after his doctors examined. Giving no real detail they said he’s not yet ready to race.
Five-time F1 champion Mike Baldwin once said, prophetically, that for every good day you will have in racing there will be five bad days. “It’s just the way it works,” then Bimota WSBK rider Baldwin said. Marc Marquez has enjoyed many good days in racing. In MotoGP he became the new gold standard while he was still a rookie and the success didn’t stop until he crashed at Jerez breaking his arm.
It would be interesting to know exactly what was flagged by his doctors in their inspection of his arm. Bone infections can be very difficult to treat and to heal. Many times it can take more than a year and the use of very expensive antibiotics for complete recovery. That’s the downside here, probably. The upside is that Marc lives in and was treated in the modern era of medical treatment and he can afford top-level medical care.
It wasn’t that long ago that a wound like the one suffered by Marc at Jerez would result in amputation.
If one applies the “Baldwin Prophecy” to Marc Marquez’s career, the numbers seem to work. He’s a five-time MotoGP world champion and the youngest champion in class history. If he wore a Superman t-shirt under his leathers no one would suggest he take it off. He has won the title in multiple seasons before the last race. He could retire from racing tomorrow and be considered one of the best racers of all time. That said, MotoGP Marc has crashed far too often (50 times one season) and in motorcycle racing the dream can be extinguished in one simple, stupid crash.
Hopefully that is not the situation here but that he seemed ready to go but was unable to pass a medical is very much reason for concern.
