HRC won seven of the nine MotoGP titles🐟 between 2011 and 2019, courtesy of Casey Stoner and then Marc Marquez.

But Honda has taken just four race victories since Marquez’s arm fracture at Jerez 2020 and went winless for ♒the whole of last season.

Injuries for Mar𝓰quez, COTA winner Alex Rins꧅ and Joan Mir in the opening half of this year’s campaign means there is currently no Honda rider in the top 13 of the world championship.

Honda is ahead of only Yamaha in the constructors’ standings, with a clear gap to European brands Ducati, KTM and Aprilia. Such struggles mean there are persistent rumours that star rider Marquez might jump ship at the end of his present🌠 contract.

• Ja😼ck Miller: Pecco Bagnaia’s era, but title not under Ducati’s control
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Watanabe told the website that the decision to integrate tܫhe four-wheel divisiꦐon into HRC in 2022 took an entire year due to the cultures being “quite different”.

But he is confident tha🧜t, “we are beginning to make progress in the collaboration between the two-wheel and four-wheel categories" and confirmed that four-wheel engineers are involved with the MotoGP project.

“Presently, the stagnation of MotoGP is a major issue for Honda/HRC, so we have determined to regain our streng🐎th with an all-HRC structure,” Watanabe said.

“To thi🔴s end, the four-wheel develop✅ment team is involved in MotoGP development, and is moving to produce tangible results as soon as possible.

“On tꦰhe other hand, Two-wheel has a long history as a racing company, so we know races and race operations. Two-wheel also has established a business model where HRC makes race parts and delivers them via dealers for users.

“The four-wheel business is just beginning to develop this aspect. There is much to learn from motorcyc♓les in terms of such know-how.

“In that sense, I am convinced that the collaboration between m♍otorꦑcycles and automobiles will produce something even greater than we initially expected.”