2019 Misano - Gran Premio Octo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini

Hollywood said:

Is it an excuse, whats going on with Honda these days? Take Marquez out of the equation, and Honda would be in real ....... the first few races of the season, I really thought JLo was the problem, but based on how the other Hondas are doing I'm starting to think its the bike.

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It's the Stoner Effect. Supremely talented Marquez is riding around the bike's defects and Honda is turning a blind eye to this dynamic.

The Honda, like the Ducati seems to have a lot of speed in it, but only the very special of riders is able to extract the speed consistently from race to race.

I'm wondering if the other manufacturers are having similar problems and that they tyres may well be the challenge. This would explain a rider biting at the heals of or even beating MM, while being nowhere in other races. MM is so good that he is always able to find a way around the tyres/bike so that even on a bad day he is fighting for a podium finish.

with Ducati, I feel the team over thinks the set up and end up trying to many things during the free practices (they tried multiple aero set ups on Friday and Saturday among other adjustments). When they get it right, they usually can get all 3 factory bikes in the top 10, but when they can not figure out the set up all the bikes struggle. Give Dovi some credit, his race craft is usually good enough to make up for it on race day.

Hollywood said:

with Ducati, I feel the team over thinks the set up and end up trying to many things during the free practices (they tried multiple aero set ups on Friday and Saturday among other adjustments). When they get it right, they usually can get all 3 factory bikes in the top 10, but when they can not figure out the set up all the bikes struggle. Give Dovi some credit, his race craft is usually good enough to make up for it on race day.

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I have no reason to take away all credit from Dovi. He does get some. But not as many as MM.