On the eve of the Aragon Grand Prix race and its controversy launched by Jorge Lorenzo, Juan Pedro de la Torre was able to interview Marc Marquez for the Spanish site The Confidential.
A rather interesting interview, due to the many topics covered, to which the Honda driver responds both frankly and with an argument that is all the stronger because it is based on his formidable track record.
Excerpts…
For your sixth season in MotoGP, you are on the way to your fifth title. How would you rank these six seasons based on their difficulty?
Marc Marquez: “I would say that the most complicated was 2016, because of everything: because of the pressure at the start of the year, because we started the year very badly and we were coming from a bad year , so there was even more pressure. It was a difficult year. I won the title quickly, in Japan, with three races remaining, but there was a very difficult first part of the season. Then, it would be 2017: we started badly, and when we start badly, we have a difficult season, because we are behind throughout the championship, and there is pressure because we cannot miss. Then, 2013: it was my first year.”
And 2015?
“Yes, then 2015. And you will say: but you did not win in 2015. Yes, I did not win because of me, because I made too many mistakes by going too far; I didn't understand, I didn't have enough experience. And already, with less difficulty I would put this year, and finally 2014, the easiest.
Which was the hardest, mentally?
" It was last year. I needed to rest psychologically, I even decided not to run on the dirt track in Barcelona. I had to take a break from the pressure. I even said during the season that my hair was starting to fall out, and it was from anxiety.”
Was it because of this exhaustion that you had to change your attitude? Because that's when we started to see a Marquez who didn't aim for victory but ensured results...
“Well, in 2016, that's when I started to change my mentality, but last year the situation of starting the championship badly repeated itself… I thought, I can't… And when it seemed as I could, Dovizioso arrived, in the second half of the season, and then when I came back up again, I broke the engine… I couldn't miss! »
Do you think you were wrong to reach out to Rossi?
" No. Never. Courtesy does not take away courage. I was not wrong; If I felt it, it was because I was not deceived, and that is what I felt at the time. I'm like this: I always said I didn't have a problem, and he said he didn't have one either. If you don't have a problem with someone, nothing happens. I learned a few years ago with this maneuver [editor's note: the incident with Rossi at Sepang in 2015] that we must not waste any seconds with this; you shouldn't give it much importance. And you saw it: Misano was an ordinary grand prix for me.”
Is Lorenzo's arrival a Honda strategy to prevent you from getting comfortable?
“It's a Honda strategy so that a great rider, well, a great champion as Jorge says, is not in another team and you have him in your garage, and he wins with your bike . It's the masterful strategy of a team, whether Honda or Ducati: to have two of the fastest riders in the same structure and with the same bike. So you know that either one can challenge for the title, or both at the same time. Since Honda told us, and in this sense I have always been very respected, I have not posed a problem because you should not be afraid in life. And if he beats me, then 'hats off'. There is no problem.
A veto would mean fear, and you don't have to be afraid. If you're here and you think you can be quick and win, why veto it? Ultimately, it’s a team where everyone has their own side of the box and has their own technical team, and it’s unified by a brand.”
You don't put a wall in the box, like Rossi did with Lorenzo, but do you think that you are considered an awkward teammate?
" No no. Everyone is in their cubicle and communicating via data. What happened in the past with the wall in the Yamaha box was psychological. The telemetry data was accessible to both. You don't have to waste your time on this. I learned that you have to be tough on the track. There is already a lot of experience in the box. Jorge and I, and all of us here, know that the best way to attack any rider, to express yourself, is on the track.”
It is said that one of the rookies who will move to MotoGP next season (editor's note: Joan Mir) refused to go to your team and preferred to go elsewhere. It's true?
“It depends on how you look at it. . Sometimes pilots don't like pressure. You know you're going on a bike in a team where there's a rider who wins, and you know that fifth place is going to be a bad result, or fourth place is going to be a bad result... You have to be sure the podium in every race. Living with this pressure doesn't necessarily suit you, and it makes your life easier to go to another factory where you know that a fifth place will be a victory, an excellent result, perhaps because the bike is not well prepared. If you come here, you know the bike is ready to win. When I arrived in 2013, do you think it didn't cost me? I arrived here and there was Pedrosa, a driver who had been with the factory team for eight seasons, and the situation was clear: everything for Pedrosa! But you have to believe in yourself and become stronger through your results.”
Do you think your sporting career would have been different if Stoner had not retired early?
“Well, we had already half talked about it, I had the possibility of going through the LCR team with similar conditions to Crutchlow.
At LCR, Nakagami's bike is a satellite bike, but Crutchlow has a "factory" bike: he has exactly the same parts as me and sometimes he tests new things before me. They say that next year Yamaha will adopt a similar system: Morbidelli will have a “factory”. And at Ducati, Petrucci already has it.”
To be continued…
