Alberto Puig, Marc Marquez' Honda Racing Team boss, has shown his complete support for the talent of his number one rider, at the same time belittling the achievements of Mir and Quartararo, winners of the MotoGP title in 2020 and 2021.

Marquez Would Have Won Titles in 2020 and 2021, Claims Honda Boss

Racers have fragile egos, their self-belief only as good as their last result, or so we are led to believe. They need the unreserved appreciation of their bosses and team members if they are to get the best out of themselves and the machinery.

It's always good to have someone to fight your corner and, in Honda Racing Team boss, Alberto Puig, Marquez has the ultimate sparring partner. Often as egotistical as the riders he employs, Puig is an ex-GP rider, famously becoming the first Spaniard to win his home Grand Prix, in 1995.

He is no stranger to controversial statements, famously diminishing the value of the 2020 season following Marc Marquez's crash in the opening round by stating, "But my opinion, and I know what I am talking about, is that when you win but the champion is not on the track you always have something left inside.

"I will set my example: I won a race here in 1995, and I've always wondered if I would have won it if Mick Doohan hadn't fallen." Jack Miller responded that he had "heard two people say now two questions about the validity of the championship, and it's a complete crock."

Now, he has opened his mouth once again to assert that, had Marc Marquez been present and fully fit in 2020 and 2021, he would have taken the MotoGP championship both years.

Marquez suffered a dreadful crash at the beginning of the 2020 season, breaking his right arm and putting himself out for the rest of the season. He came back in 2021 but was still not race fit and, despite winning three races, was not the force he had been in 2019.

Puig had this to say: “His career in Honda has been massively successful and it has only been truncated, or shall we say ‘frozen’ in the last two years due to his injury.

“I have to say - and I say it because I work at Honda - but I clearly believe if he didn’t have this problem with the shoulder, he would have won the last two years, clearly in my opinion.

“When you check his career in Honda, the relationship and this company, it has been very successful and from my point of view, since we started working with him I can only say that it is really easy. Even in the tough times.”

Despite the arrogance of the statement - a statement which Marquez has never himself seen fit to put out, even if he believed it himself - there is a grain of truth in what Puig says, especially if we look at Marquez' form over previous seasons that netted him 6 championships out of seven from 2013 to 2019. There is no reason to suspect that he would have been any less dominant in 2020 and 2021 had he not been injured but the fact is, he was, so the speculation remains just that: speculation.

It also massively belittles the achievements and skill of Joan Mir and Fabio Quartararo who took the titles in 2020 and 2021 respectively. There is simply no way of knowing how the championships would have played out with Marquez fully fit. Even the best fall off their pedestal - look at Rossi in 2006 and 2007 after taking five titles on the trot between 2001 and 2005.

Still, it all adds spice to the forthcoming battle that will be the 2022 MotoGP season. I prefer to look at it this way: two years break from Marquez' dominance has given the whole grid two years to hone the belief that they can also have just as valid a shot at the championship and I think Marquez might have his work cut out to take up where he left off at the end of 2019.

It's time to look forward and not back at what might have been. Let's just let the riders do their talking on the track and tell the managers to shut up.