Honda’s Jorge Lorenzo speaks about second thoughts on his MotoGP career after a big crash as he also opens up on the rumours around him.
A crash in Barcelona MotoGP test already hurt Lorenzo’s back, but it got intensified when he crashed heavily in Assen, which forced him out of several grand prix races in an already troubled season.
It hasn’t been the year Lorenzo wanted as since the end of last season to the beginning of 2019, the Spaniard has had several injuries which has taken a toll on his body. This one caused for second thoughts on his life and career.
Lorenzo admits to having negative thoughts early on but as he recovered, positivity started to fill in towards the challenge with Honda in 2020 and also 2021 as he dismissed all rumours regarding his contract.
He said he called Alberto Puig and re-affirmed his commitment for Honda until the end of 2020. Although what happens beyond that is still an unknown with options with Ducati and Petronas Yamaha SRT open for him.
“I just can tell that obviously, as a human being, after two very hard and big crashes, especially the last one in Assen, but also you couldn’t see my crash in Montmelo but it was huge,” said Lorenzo.
“After the big crash that I never suffered in my career – when you speak about back injuries, it gets serious – honestly I started to have doubts, doubts about my life, about my career.
“I think it’s human, it’s normal to have these kind of doubts. When I started to feel better and more recovered, these doubts started to disappear – and the commitment, and the challenge that more or less one year ago I decided to take, I restarted to be again convinced about that.
“The challenge to be able to be competitive with also the Honda MotoGP bike, to be able to win with them some race at least, and to be able to win with three bikes [ in my career that is Honda, Yamaha and Ducati] and again after recovering and feeling better, knowing that this injury will not create problems for the future in my health, I again felt commitment to keep with this challenge.
“I called Alberto and Honda and told them I wanted to be fully committed to the challenge. I’m here to speak about the future. I told already how my feelings were when I had the crash, and how my feelings were more safe and more secure during the healing process, during these weeks.
“I have a two-year contract. We have gone through difficulties until now, but I signed a two-year contract and I would like to get results with this bike, as I did with the rest of the bikes I’ve been on through 17 years.”
Talking about his recovery, Lorenzo stated that his back is not yet 100% fit but very close to it. He is taking British GP as a test run as he hasn’t ridden a bike since the Assen crash. He hopes to be fully fit by the next grand prix.
