Marc Marquez claims he's making too many mistakes to be in 2024 title hunt
How does the eight-time world champion assess his championship credentials?
Marc Marquez hasn’t ruled out the prospect of fighting for the 2024 MotoGP world championship, but insists he can't make "the mistakes” he did at the San Marino Grand Prix.
The Gresini Ducati rider is now only 53 points behind championship leader Jorge Martin, after Marquez came through from ninth on the grid in the tricky conditions to score his second grand prix win of the season.
With 259 points left up for grabs over the remaining seven rounds, and good tracks coming up for Marquez, he has become a bigger threat in the title chase.
But after the Q2 crash that left him ninth at Misano, plus other mistakes at recent rounds robbing of points, Marquez says must iron out these errors if he wants to be a contender.
“You never know,” he replied when asked if the championship seemed more realistic now.
“Especially when you go out of Europe, in Asia, there you know how the conditions are sometimes.
“But the thing is I continue with my mentality: if we want to fight for the championship, we cannot start ninth on the grid.
“We cannot do the mistakes that I did in the qualifying practice. We need to keep going, keep improving and this is what I will try to do in two weeks here.”
Reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia, who is seven points off Martin after San Marino, says Marquez cannot be ruled out as a title contender now.
He pointed to his own fluctuating points situation at Misano as proof of this, while also insisting Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini can’t be forgotten about in the championship battle.
“You never know,” Bagnaia said when asked about Marquez’s title prospects.
“Look at my situation. I was 26 points behind yesterday [after the sprint] and I am seven now.
“So, everything can change quickly. It’s the same for Marc and the same for Enea.
“We know Marc’s potential and it looks like he found again what he was having in the first part of the championship.
“So, never put Marc out of the title contenders. And never put Enea out of the title contenders. Nothing. We will try to do always what we did today.”
For Marquez, having won the last two grands prix, he feels like he is close to a sustained level of competitiveness like the one he showed in 2019 when he won his sixth premier class title.
However, he says there are “still some weak points” for him to address.
“Yeah, ’19… ’21 was not bad,” he said.
“There was a period that was Aragon, Austin, Misano [in 2021] that was not bad.
“But it’s true that with normal conditions that we had this weekend, it was from ’19… well, 19 was another step still.
“But I feel that I can play with my body, I start to play more with the bike.
“Still some weak points, for example that Turn 11, 12 [at Misano] where Pecco is super-fast; we need to understand for the next weekend - I will not be faster than him - if we can be close to him.
“Still, there are some points to discover but every time you have confidence you are able to play more with your body and be faster.”
