Marc Marquez’s 11-year partnership with Repsol Honda Team
On November 26, 2023, the last race of the MotoGP 2023 season was held in Valencia, the third largest city in Spain. This race was Marc Marquez’s last race as a Honda factory team rider, and it was also the end of an 11-year partnership between Marquez and the Honda team. From now on, the number 93 of the Honda team will no longer be Marquez, and Marquez’s 93 will no longer be Honda’s 93.
Marquez and the HRC came together in 2012, the year they signed a formal contract. Since then, Marquez has won 6 world championships, 5 triple crowns, 59 Grand Prix wins, 104 podium finishes, and 64 pole positions.
Marquez is the youngest MotoGP annual champion in history, a glory he achieved with the Honda team. In the 2013 season, Marquez was promoted from the Moto2 to the MotoGP for the first time, quickly demonstrating his amazing talent and ability in this highest level of motorcycle racing. At the opening race in Qatar, he made a beautiful debut, winning his first MotoGP podium. At the Circuit of the Americas in the United States, Marquez won the MotoGP championship, becoming the youngest MotoGP station champion. At that time, he had just celebrated his 20th birthday, and this was undoubtedly a belated birthday gift to himself!
In 2014, he successfully defended his title and won the first 10 races of the season, and then won the 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 world championship driver records as a Repsol HONDA rider.
On November 25, at the Valencia sprint race, Marquez stood on the podium, which was his last time to stand on the podium for the Repsol Honda team. At this moment, he shed tears. He couldn’t bear to part with Honda, and he thanked Honda. Without Honda, there would be no 11 years of his glory. Without Marquez, there would be no 11 years of Honda’s victories. This was their 11 years of fighting side by side, and this feeling is indescribable.
History will become the past, but we can use a special item to remember and collect this moment. I recommend a Honda RC213V motorcycle pin badge in MOTOPINS. This is a design from motorcycle enthusiasts that restores the Honda factory team’s RC213V racing bike, using zinc alloy material and baking paint technology to vividly outline the racing bike’s lines, and also fully express the color of the Honda racing bike. The badge records the Honda racing bike that Marquez rode during his time, allowing motorcycle enthusiasts who love motorcycle racing, like Marquez or the Honda team, to preserve this precious memory.
