Marc Márquez spoke with our collaborator Manuel Pecino during the Thailand GP. If there was anything that characterized Marc Márquez This season it was the good results, but above all his way of riding the Ducati in the first year. Next season we will be able to see him wearing the official red, something that many are eagerly awaiting. But before that, there was still a Grand Prix to be contested, in which 93 returned home to Montmeló.
About Nerea García / Motosan.es
In the meantime, let's watch this interview with Manuel Pecino.
On Monday, after Misano 1, I met Dovizioso and I asked him if, after Aragon and Misano 1, you were ready to continue winning. He told me that it was not yet the case, but that you were not far from it. After Australia, how do you feel?
“Not yet, but maybe I’m close. I feel closer to it, but I’m not at the level where I can fight every race of the year. I’m there and close, I’m usually in the top four most of the time, which is what I was looking for. But if you want to take that step, there are races where I’ve been too far behind the leader. For one reason, for another… but OK.”
Compare yourself to Marc Marquez 2019…
“The thing is that the 2019 Marc Marquez, I would say, had a lot more confidence. Here in Thailand, the 2019 Marc was almost 100 points ahead of the others, he was better physically too, but less mature.”
And as a driver, how do you see yourself now, compared to 2019?
“I see myself well, but the way you see yourself is very relative. You change the bike and the settings of a rider and he says to himself ‘now I feel very good’, and sometimes you arrive at a circuit and the riding does not suit him. It is very relative, I think I am at a similar level to 2019, because I am not better or worse, but with different strengths. In 2019 it was pure speed, now I have much more experience. I would not say race strategy, because you can be the smartest in the class, but if you do not have speed you become the stupidest. If you have speed, suddenly you are the most strategic, the most consistent… it is because you have that point.”
When you got on the Ducati, did you think, 'My God, what am I up against?'
“Not at first. I rather reassured myself, because when you make such an important decision, you have doubts. And after riding the same bike for 10 years, I had doubts about my ability to ride the Ducati. But it’s not because I didn’t think I was capable, otherwise I wouldn’t have made that decision. I was very surprised, because from the first race I felt very good. That’s one of my strong points as a rider: adapting to the conditions of the moment. After that, the margin for improvement is different, I prefer to get to the top quickly.”
Explain to me the phases you went through with the Ducati…
“The first is to understand how the bike rides, and you try to adapt to it. There comes a point where you can’t adapt anymore, and you start working on what you need to feel more comfortable, or where you lose the most. Once you explore that point, you start to make the connection between the rider and the technician. That’s another transition point. Once you’re close to those competitive times, that’s when you find the first wall, which is low and over which you can jump. Then you break through it and you start to exploit more technically the details of the set-up. That’s what I said in Jerez and Austin. But each time the wall is higher and higher; so you try to go back, and so on until you find the key and you progress.”
What did the separation with Emilio Alzamora mean for Márquez?
“What it meant for me was different needs. A pilot doesn’t have the same needs as he gets older. Often, even if you’re in love at 18, that doesn’t mean she’s the woman of your life. So there was a point where, either because of the timing or because of what I needed, I started to understand personal life in a different way. And you have to make certain decisions for your own well-being. We always did an impeccable job together, but the needs were different and I felt at that point that I needed a change.”
The agency " Vertical » is it an example of this metamorphosis? The world of influencers has nothing to do with yours, but you have opened a communication agency. What is behind this?
“Well, everyone looks at their future. It is obvious that within ‘Vertical’ there are different verticals. I focus on sport. But you don’t have the same needs at 18 as you do at 30. When I made the decision to leave Emilio, at 30, he could take care of these issues. Why look for someone else to do it for you? In the end, you can choose the bike, the helmet, the suit… you can do it yourself. When you are young, you have to let yourself be advised. But when you are 30, you know how it works and you already have some experience… it doesn’t mean that they are the right decisions, but for example, no one told me that I had to leave Honda and go to Gresini. In ‘Vertical’ there are many people who take care of everything. A 30-year-old rider needs to be strengthened off the track.”
Will regaining the title be the mission to accomplish?
"I gave up eight thousand things to prolong my sporting life, because otherwise I would have given it up. That was the priority, to seek that feeling, to talk about a title again, to win it again... Obviously, all the drivers on the grid are trying, and I will try. But for me, it would not be a failure or a success to win the title or not; for me it is already a success. To have this second youth. It seemed like I was finished, and boom, I came back to life! The title would be the icing on the cake."
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Nerea García
Marc Márquez
