“No member of the Marquez family can be in Yamaha” revelation leaked
Marc Marquez’s controversial and well-detailed history with Valentino Rossi is well known, which is why it would come as no shock if the eight-time world champion never rode a Yamaha.
But it’s also been revealed that his brother Alex was blocked from joining Yamaha because of his brother.
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Alex, who joined MotoGP with Honda, admitted on a DAZN documentary about his career that he had an offer to join the Petronas Yamaha squad before the Japanese brand stepped in.
“It was the fifth year in Moto2, I had been criticised for that,” began Marquez. “I’d wanted to get to MotoGP for years. In the middle of the year, in Brno, I had an offer to do a year in Moto2 and I think it was two years in MotoGP, with Petronas Yamaha.
“Fabio Quartararo was in front, fighting with Marc [in 2019], and it was a bike I liked. I thought it was good for my riding style, but didn’t end up working for ‘x’ reasons.”
Former team owner of Petronas Yamaha, before it became RNF Aprilia, Razlan Razali also spoke about the decision from Yamaha not to sign Marquez despite it being his team.
“In 2019 we [SRT] had a bike in Moto2, but Dorna gave us another seat for the 2020 season,” said Razali.
“I like Alex and he was on my shortlist. So, we had some secret meetings and we signed at the Marquez’s motorhome for him to be with us for one year in Moto2, and in 2021 when Fabio went to the factory team, to move Alex up to MotoGP with us.
“And I have a picture here [on my phone] because I signed it and then Marc and Alex came.
“We actually signed the contract for Alex to be with us. This was in August 2019, at 10 o’clock at night.
“I told Yamaha that I wanted to sign Alex for Moto2 and then for MotoGP. And Yamaha said ‘no, no member of the Marquez family can be at Yamaha.’
“I said, ‘Why? This is my team’. It was because of Marc and what happened in 2015. It became personal from them [Yamaha].”
