MOTOGP: Marquez fears development mistakes

Honda's bid to avoid repeating the mistakes it made with its 2015 MotoGP bike is complicated by the series' new electronics, Marc Marquez acknowledges.

The double MotoGP champion struggled through the first half of last year with the consistency of Honda's RC213V, falling three times in a run of five early-season races.

Having ultimately reverted to his 2014-specification bike with the '15 engine, Marquez concedes the team simply went down the wrong development path.

"In 2013 and 2014 I found a good bike, and everything went well," he told Motosprint. "2015 is the year when, in winter testing, we made a mistake, that is we went down the wrong path with development.

"It wasn't just my problem, as Dani [Pedrosa] also fell for it despite nine years of MotoGP experience. Thing is, there was a concurrency of errors. We all made some at the same time."

In a dual 2016 technical change, the switch to Michelin control tires is accompanied by the introduction of a new Magneti Marelli control ECU.

During their first proper running on both new elements at Valencia last November, riders called the electronics a "backwards step" and Marquez knows it will be a factor in Honda resolving its 2015 mistakes.

"The difficulty, on top of everything else, will be in managing everything well," the 22-year-old added. "It's very easy to make mistakes in these cases. Tyres are the same for everyone, but the new software is a step back compared to what we had until last year.

"We must find a performance as close as possible to what we had before, but what complicates things is our need to develop a whole bike and choose the right engine configuration. This is where we had the big problem in 2015. But before making that choice we must reach a good level with the electronics; only then we can make our choices on the engine.

"It makes no sense to have a good engine with inadequate electronics management, because you can get confused."

Originally on Autosport.com