The smile gives it away. After four very bitter winters, Marc Márquez finally celebrates having completed a good season in MotoGP. He has won races again, three in total, he has been on the podium regularly and, above all, he has managed to find himself again. Those “little birds” in his head that made him even doubt whether it was worth continuing were finally gone, so fed up was he with fractures, falls and operations.
His decision to leave Honda to join Gresini Racing was not without risks, but the bet has turned out well. Only one year later he is already an official Ducati rider, and although he has just started his vacation, he can’t wait to start the preseason. In Barcelona he got on the GP25 for the first time, which will be his new bike, two evolutions above the one he rode in the just-ended campaign. And the sensations were more than good. If 2024 was exciting for him, 2025 promises to be even better.
«The big questions I had for this year have been answered positively. The main one was whether it was still competitive, and the answer is yes,” says the Spanish driver during an extensive press conference in which he analyzes past, present and future. There is time for everything, even to go off on a tangent when questioned about the television controversy in which Jorge Martín has been involved: «El Hormiguero or La Revuelta? I feel very good on the couch at home. Now I wouldn’t go to any, because I haven’t won and it’s time to give prominence to the champion,” he said before bursting out laughing. «I look like a politician. “I say what I want.”
More seriously, Márquez saw himself prepared to compete for the world crown next year, although he refuses to consider himself a favorite: «I am in the best team, with the best motorcycle, so I have all the tools to try to win another title. Now it will be in my hands to perform at my best. But this is MotoGP, the best championship in the world with the best riders. Every year there are surprises, new talents emerge… I wish everything was written down and it was so easy. But if you want to be a champion, you have to win it on the track. “Everything has to be perfect to win a World Cup.”
His duel with Pecco Bagnaia, his new teammate, will be one of the great attractions of the season. The Italian, double world champion with the official Ducati, will have in Márquez the most uncomfortable neighbor possible, although the one from Cervera prefers to adopt a low profile, at least until the first official tests are held: «In a box there is no number 1 and a number 2 officially, but there is a status. Now the lead voice is Pecco, because he won two world titles and eleven races last year, which is outrageous. He is the reference, the rider who has returned Ducati to success. I will try to get closer to him little by little, but he is the fastest driver right now…”
He himself admits that it will be an unprecedented situation, accustomed since his beginnings at Honda to taking the lead within his team. And it is difficult to fit him into that gregarious role, so oblivious to everything that his figure as a driver represents, with eight world championships behind him. But he insists: «Hopefully in a year we will be here and you will tell me: ‘See? You were keeping a low profile, but you were deceiving us.’ But that’s what I feel right now. Then we’ll see. We will try to work in the best way to fight for the title. I always try to be realistic. Right now I feel that way. Maybe after the preseason I will say something else, but now it’s time to work, understand Ducati’s philosophy and get to a box where there is a rider who is winning a lot. “I will try to learn from him, be as close as possible and, if the title can be stolen from him, it will be stolen.”
Marc, with no signs of fatigue after the very long interrogation, says goodbye toasting with the media for a successful 2025, in which he can continue having fun on the bike, at least as much as he did in the previous season. “A happy pilot is a fast pilot,” he says. “So I will continue looking for that happiness, which depends on the results, of course.”
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