MotoGP | Rins, Marquez, Mir, Acosta. Who owns the future of Honda? [RACING TITLES]

The news of the week is, inevitably, the agreement between Alex Rins and the LCR team starting next season. That Suzuki's farewell to MotoGP could open up a domino, in terms of the rider market, was rather predictable, but that it would consequently take on the form of a technical crossroads for the future of Honda was much less so.

Rins officially entering the HRC rider roster, with a direct contract and riding the factory bike, although de facto "parked" and for now in Lucio Cecchinello's team, is a first strong sign of the desire of Alberto Puig and colleagues to reverse a route that has dangerously drifted in recent times.

The second signal in this sense has been expected for weeks, to be precise since Suzuki had always announced his "break ranks" at the end of this season, and is linked to the name Joan Mir. The 2020 World Champion immediately seemed to be the real objective of the Saitama team, his engagement in the official HRC team has been on the agenda for some time now, but to date, there has still been no white smoke.

In short, for a Rins who arrives, there is a Mir who waits. The fate of the two Spaniards, teammates for years, is intertwined in a dense and heavily Iberian-tinged plot, where Marc Marquez's physical condition inevitably remains the dominant force.

The fourth operation on the humerus of the right arm, the diplopia problems, the passing of time and an ordeal that has lasted for two years now, outline a present and above all a future for number 93 surrounded by a fog too thick to make one sleep soundly calm down.

At Honda they know this, or at least they are starting to be aware of it, and they also know that the opportunities that the market can offer should not be underestimated and certainly not left to the availability of others. This is why the arrival of Rins, a reliable and fast rider as well as courted by both Aprilia and Ducati, this is why dragging off further and risking leaving Mir in the free agent category could represent a mistake, and this, finally, is why the first attempts to " book” Pedro Acosta and his predestined future seem like an early but more sensible strategy than ever.

The great revolution in Honda, at least as far as the riders are concerned, has just begun and must be followed closely to understand what scenarios it will deliver, with the awareness that to bring the Japanese giant back to the front of everyone it will be necessary to invest, and a lot, also in the development of a motorcycle too defective and slow compared to those preceding it. But this, at least for the moment, is a completely different story.