MotoGP | Marquez calm: “We had a great pre-season”

After a long winter, the first week of the 2024 MotoGP season is finally here, with this weekend's Qatar Grand Prix kicking off an exciting season. Even if it is not the only one to focus the spotlight on, Marc Marquez's debut on the Gresini team's Ducati is one of the most important events not only of the season, but also, probably, of the four-stroke era.

In a promotional video for his fan club, Marc declared: “It's an important year for me, we bet a lot,” the Spanish rider said in reference to his farewell from Honda, where he has raced since his debut in the premier class in 2013 until the end of 2023.

However, the lack of results and, above all, the poor prospects of the Japanese bike to close the gap that separated it from the main European manufacturers, in particular Ducati, led Marc to tear up his contract with Honda a year before it expired, to arrive at a private structure and, certainly, one of the most austere in the category. The only way for rider number 93 to get a Ducati, even if as a satellite team, from the previous year (GP23).

An important maneuver on which, as Marc himself underlines, “we bet a lot”, aware that there are as many possibilities that it will go well as it won't go as expected, especially because the level of the opponents is very high, and the large number of fast riders who race with the Ducati makes the competition terrifying .

“A great pre-season” for Márquez

Amidst all this, a few days ago some unconfirmed reports suggested that Márquez, who underwent four operations on his right arm between 2020 and 2022, has not fully recovered from that injury and that this was the reason for his decent performance in winter tests.

The rider, during the team presentation last January, said he was satisfied: “I finally had a normal winter, it was something important because since 2018 I have done rehabilitation every winter, on my shoulder and arm. I had a normal winter and I will try to stay away from injuries. In recent years it has been a nightmare, I have had injuries also in 2023,” he admitted, recalling that he had to undergo surgery for compartment syndrome after the end of the season.

Pantallazo of the Márquez fan club, who assures that he has “a great pretemporary”

Photo by: Weare93

A positive feeling that went further on Sunday, when the rider declared: “We had an excellent pre-season”, which should clear up any doubts about his physical condition. Marc is tired of so many falls and has decided to try to avoid them as much as possible. In fact, only on the last day of pre-season did he fall.

“There is no secret. During the entire pre-season I was very calm, but today was the right day to increase the risk and attack”, explained Marc after finishing the tests in Qatar with the fourth fastest time. “The first crash came, but it's normal,” said the Catalan, who had never arrived physically “clean” at the pre-season tests since 2018.

Marquez's injuries since 2018

-4 December 2018: after several dislocations during the season, he underwent surgery on his left shoulder.

-27 November 2019: he suffered two dislocations in his right shoulder and underwent a “preventive” operation to avoid the same problems as the other arm.

-29 July 2020: he has a bad fall in Jerez and fractures his right humerus. He underwent an operation two days later to apply a plate and attempted to return six days after the fall, but gave up due to the pain.

-3 August 2020: weakened by the premature return, the humeral plate breaks during a domestic accident and must be replaced with a new operation.

-3 December 2020: suffering from pseudarthrosis (poor calcification of the bone), he undergoes a bone graft with pelvic bone and the plate is replaced during an eight-hour operation. An infection was found which forced him to undergo antibiotic treatment for several months, even after his return to the track.

-2 November 2021: after missing the first two races of the year, he managed to recover and take three victories, but was forced to miss the last two Grands Prix due to a fall in practice which caused him a concussion and an episode of diplopia (blurred vision ), a problem he had already suffered from in 2011 when he raced in Moto2.

-20 March 2022: after a heavy fall in Mandalika, he suffers another concussion and has to abandon the race. A new episode of double vision forces him to miss the Argentine GP.

-2 June 2022: movement in his right arm was too limited after the 2020 injury, and he underwent a fourth operation on his humerus, which had rotated more than 30 degrees, to return the bone to its correct position. After this major operation, which lasted three hours at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, he missed six more races.

-26 March 2023: after an accident with Miguel Oliveira in Portimao, Marquez has to undergo surgery on the first metacarpal bone of the thumb of his right hand. He withdraws from the next three races.

-18 June 2023: Marquez crashes five times before the race and decides to withdraw from the German GP. A week later, at Assen, he again cut short his pre-race weekend due to an ankle injury and a cracked rib that makes it difficult for him to breathe on the bike.

-29 November 2023: despite trying to keep it hidden, an episode of compartment syndrome disturbs the pilot throughout the final part of the season and he finally decides to undergo surgery to solve the problem and arrive “clean” at the 2024 pre-season.