Marquez reveals root of Rossi feud: “After that day, relationship different”
The Marc Marquez All In release date is February 20, via Amazon Prime Video, and his documentary touches on his feud with Rossi, one of MotoGP’s nastiest and longest-running rivalries.
It piqued at the end of the 2015 season - Rossi knocked Marquez off his bike, then accused Marquez of assisting Jorge Lorenzo to win the title. A dramatic press conference by Rossi ensured the chapter would remain in MotoGP folklore.
But Marquez now reveals to La Gazzetta dello Sport that the rivalry was born in 2014, at Rossi’s private Tavullia ranch: "After that day it seemed to me that the relationship was different."
Marquez had won the premier class title in his rookie season in 2013 and was en route to winning back-to-back championships when he spent the day, alongside other young stars, at Rossi’s ranch.
A year later, their relationship turned toxic.
Marquez insists: "I don't like to talk about 2015, but if I make a documentary film, how can I not do it?
“I also talked about Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, when it came to 2015 I honestly said what I think."
Rossi turned 44 and Marquez turned 30 just days apart in February.
“We are both an aquarius, we are two hardheads,” Marquez said.
In a separate interview recently, Marquez looked back at Sepang 2015: “The Malaysian press conference arrived and instead of taking me aside and speaking he attacked me publicly, it was disrespectful. I think it was intimidation."
Marquez enters the 2023 season hoping two years of injury hell are behind him but knowing that challenges still exist with his Repsol Honda bike.
The preseason Sepang test was a positive for him as an individual but perhaps not so for his team overall.
"Now you have to work a lot, you have seen, but in this month you don't have to get angry, it doesn't help, you don't earn anything,” Marquez said.
He looked back at being forced to consider retirement last summer when he underwent a fourth arm surgery: "The possibility existed.
“It didn't happen because the doctor assured me that he had a solution, and at that point I just said ok.
"Otherwise I would have stopped. In those months I thought a lot, that's why the decision came to separate from [long-time manager] Emilio Alzamora.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
