Alex Marquez: No doubts about Marc’s level, ‘for sure he’ll be fast’

That win, the 59th of Marquez’s illustrious career, came at the Emilia-Romagna round, at Misano, on October 24th, 2021.

Since then, he’s made just two podium appearances, at Phillip Island 2022 and Motegi 2023.

The persistent drought eventually prompted Marquez to rip up the final year of his Repsol Honda contract and join younger brother Alex on a year-old Ducati at Gresini this season.

Alex, whose own Gresini move transformed his MotoGP fortunes last season, has no doubts about Marc’s level, although he warned the #93 to ‘take care’ at the beginning of the season.

“I don’t have any doubts that he will achieve the level because he already showed it,” said Alex, who took two Sprint wins and two Grand Prix podiums during his best MotoGP season to date last year.

“Of course, he needs to take care at the beginning of the season because there are a lot of Ducati riders with more experience than him with this bike.

“He can be a bit stronger, see if he can score good points in the first few races and make a season stepping forward, then he’ll be in the fight.

“But it’s too early at the moment to have any expectations.”

The #73 added: “He made a very important change in his career. He knew he had a great opportunity to go back to the top level, but it will also be his first year on a Ducati, on a new bike, so for sure he will have some ups and downs.

“In the pre-season he will see what he needs to improve more, if he struggles or not, if the strong points he had on last year’s bike [Honda] are also useful in this bike [Ducati]…

“For sure, he’ll be fast and will put the rest of us in difficulties. Anyway, it will be great to see how far he is going with this new bike.”

The eight time world champion, who broke into a big smile ‘of relief’ on his way to fourth fastest on his Desmosedici debut at the Valencia test, will return to the track alongside his brother during official testing at Sepang from February 6-8.

But what will happen if the Gresini team-mates find themselves fighting for victory the final lap of a race this year?

“If we’re fighting, we’re fighting…” laughed Marc.

“Yeah, exactly!” said Alex. “It’s like this. Well, I’m sure you have a little more respect. Maybe not respect, but you will overtake and think: “Ok, if I make any mistake, I better leave some room to let him go” or something like that.

“But in the end, if you’re on track fighting for a victory, you just try to find the best way for yourself.”

“I agree with that,” added Marc, notoriously ruthless in battle. “Of course, overtaking on the last lap is always critical, even if it’s your brother or any other rider, but if he is also your team-mate, you have to be extra careful with the situation.

“We showed in 2022 that if we were fighting for a seventh position, it wasn’t even for a victory, we fought each other like if it was with any other rider, and this is also important, the spirit.

“Because in the end he’s my brother and my team-mate but also another opponent.”

Alex felt several victory chances slipped through his fingers last year, but Marc advised the former Moto3 and Moto2 world champion to focus on consistency.

“For me, Alex already showed last season that he can fight for victory. Now, the most difficult thing or the most important thing is trying to understand if he can be constantly in that position or if he has some ups and downs,” Marc said.

“His clear target is trying to be in the top eight or six on every race, that would be good. Of course, if he can fight for more, it will be welcome, but it’s better to have low expectations now because we still have to make the pre-season and, after that, you will be able to realise more which goal you can approach to.

“The second part of last season from Alex, after his injury in India, was super good. He was fighting for victory in Malaysia, he won two sprint races and he was constantly on the front two rows (of the grid), on qualifying sessions too, also racing with the top five…

“So it will be good for me to have a team-mate like him in order to learn how to ride the Ducati.”

The Marquez brothers will unveil their 2024 Gresini race livery on January 20th.