“Light at the end of the tunnel” that can make Márquez a 9 times world champion
Marc Marquez was the fourth fastest Ducati in Sepang tests, but is his best yet to come?
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After a rather quiet performance in the official Sepang test, many including the eight times world champion himself have suggested that the current form of finishing 9th, 14th, and 6th across three days isn’t something to get all excited about.
His brother and teammate Alex Marquez suggested that contrary to the timesheets, Marc Marquez is already too close for comfort, as Marc did lose a lot of time due to the technical problems he faced on the first day.
“He lost, completely, the first day,” Alex said. “When you lose the first day, here in Sepang? The second day, you are delayed. This was his second day, I would say, of testing. So he’s too close to us!”
Despite struggling to show a strong single-lap pace, one can be assured that the pace shown by Marquez isn’t exactly representative of what he is capable of.
And to predict Marquez’s chances for the 2024 season, we’ll have to analyze more of what the decorated Spaniard brings to the table.
Marquez’s talent suggests that one-lap pace shouldn’t be an issue
Even with an arid run of form in recent years, one can be assured that Marquez’s instincts for riding a bike haven’t really gone away.
The guy literally finished as the top Honda on his first ride back in Portugal 2021 after a year’s worth of layoff due to injuries.
Not to mention, he repeated a similar feat when he put himself on pole in Motegi 2022 in just his second race after missing six rounds due to a second major operation to his arm.
But beyond those mercurial performances, Marquez is also known to mimic riders behind their wheels, something that we got very much accustomed to in 2023.
He even found himself on pole in the very first race of 2023 in Portugal when he followed the Ducati of Enea Bastianini and then got really close in races such as Le Mans and Mugello when he followed none other than the reigning world champion himself – Francesco Bagnaia.
With incredible intuition for riding a bike and couple of tricks under his sleeve, qualifying shouldn’t be much of an issue for the Spaniard.
I know MotoGP math doesn’t usually add up but if Marc Marquez of last year was able to challenge the top bikes on one lap pace with his dreaded 2023 Honda, then on a championship-proven bike, he shouldn’t have much of an issue finding himself in the front two rows.
Master of making excellent reads (plus more study material this time)
“Today, honestly, I’m very happy. I’m very happy because we saw the light at the end of the tunnel.”
This is a quote from Marc Marquez in the 2016 preseason test of Qatar. To put a little more context to the story, Marquez was struggling for most of the preseason as he found it difficult to contend with the new regulations. Meanwhile, the Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi were dominating the preseason tests and looked to be the title favorites.
Marquez then put in a few laps behind Jorge Lorenzo, and this is what he had to say:
“In that run I was lucky that Jorge was there and, you know, you also try to be smart, try to follow him and I was able to follow Jorge for a few laps.
“But then the positive thing is that alone, after that run, I was able to be fast on high 55s – and even when the humidity was more, I did a good run.”
Marquez would go on to finish the inaugural Grand Prix of Qatar in third place before clinching that year’s title in Japan with four races to go.
A similar situation happened in 2013, when teammate and then championship favorite Dani Pedrosa allowed a young rookie Marc Marquez to follow him in the tests, only for Marquez to come out as the eventual winner of the 2013 crown.
The point for bringing up 2013 and 2016 cases into the discussion is to showcase Marquez’s capabilities in making excellent reads on his opponents – whether it’s in the setups or mimicking them behind their wheel.
And for his new venture with Ducati this year, he will have a plentiful eight riders to get that information from. Make no mistake, the Marquez that we’ll see on the race weekends is not going to be as docile as the one we saw in Sepang.
Consistency as a strength? (I’m not so sure about this one)
Although recent memory may suggest a completely different story but for an in-form Marquez, consistency has never been an issue. Even now, if you analyze his sprint run from the last day of the Sepang test, he was consistently in the low to mid 58s which is on par with the likes of Bagnaia, Martin, and Bastianini.
The only times you’ll see Marquez throw consistency out the window is when he feels hopelessly uncompetitive with his bike.
That’s when we see a more reckless version of Marquez come into play. Like in recent years when there was no reason for Marquez to look for consistency when there wasn’t a prize at the end of it.
In years where he has been in close title fights like 2013, 2016, 2018 (to some extent), Marquez has been nothing short of masterful in maintaining his consistency.
Interestingly, right before he broke his right humerus in 2020, Marquez had a statistic of winning a third of every single race he competed in since 2013, which is a crazy statistic to have on your record.
But this is an aspect of Marquez that I’m the least confident in. Because for me, consistency is all about disciplined performances—something that seems like a distant memory in Marquez’s case.
Whereas championship contenders like Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin have already had several years of consistently competing at the highest level under their belt and will have momentum on their side.
Marquez, on the other hand, had to suffer from major injuries and was forced out for recovery, something that will hinder Marquez’s chances this year.
Biggest factor: Which Marquez comes to play?
Ultimately, it depends on which version of Marc Marquez comes to play. Will we have a 2013 version that learned and mastered all the elements to become a world champion in just his first attempt, or will we see a frustrated Marquez who will keep on crashing in pursuit of getting more pace out of his bike like he did in 2015. Only time will tell…
But one thing’s for sure. Marquez has all the tools at his disposal this season to make it competitive at the front
