Marc Marquez: I heard the rumours, I have a contract with Honda

The Spanish star signed a lengthy four-year agreement, covering the 2021-2024 seasons, just a few months before the start of his arm injury woes in 2020.

While Marquez’s arm has responded well to a fourth round of surgery in June, Honda’s RC213V finished last season at the bottom of the constructors’ ranking and - for the second time in three years - without a race win.

That has fuelled rumours that the eight-time world champion, a Repsol Honda rider since his 2013 MotoGP debut, might be able to trigger some kind of exit clause for 2024.

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“I heard about these rumours,” Marquez told MotoGP.com. “I have a two-year contract with Honda and my dream is to come back to the top with Honda. I believe a lot in them, we respect each other a lot. We have a long relationship and I think this will help us to go out of this deep situation.”

Speaking separately at Wednesday's Repsol Honda team launch, Marquez admitted he had applied pressure on Honda but that now is the time to be ‘patient’.

“As you saw in the [Marc Marquez: All In] documentary, you have to understand when you can put pressure or not,” he explained. “Sometimes you have to do something to have a reaction…and Honda also makes demands of me.

“Sometimes you must push as a rider. For example, there was a time to push Honda and now is the time to be patient and work together. We have a very long relationship and we respect each other a lot."

The 30-year-old added: "As you see in the docu-series, in Austria [2022] we had a nice and productive meeting with Honda and HRC. It was the time to do it and react for 2023.

"It was time to do some change and also HRC recognise it was the time and they did it. For example, [changing] the technical manager to Ken-san [Kawauchi].

“I am convinced that we will come back to the top together.

“The patience now is very big and totally recharged… We have two more years of contract where the target is to fight for the world championship and to put Honda where it should be.”

Marc's younger brother Alex has switched from Honda to Ducati for this season and finished ahead of his brother at the recent Sepang test.

Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli is the only factory team rider whose contract expires at the end of 2023.