Marc Marquez opens up on how serious injury has changed his MotoGP approach
“Now it’s harder…”
Marc Marquez says he has to “work double” on his physical fitness to remain competitive in MotoGP following his serious arm break in 2020.
The eight-time world champion’s career was put into jeopardy when he badly broke his right arm at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix, which required three operations and forced him to miss the entire campaign.
When he returned to racing in 2021, he still struggled with his arm as the bone was over 30 degrees out of rotation - necessitating a fourth major surgery in 2022.
While the arm now seemingly causes him no issues on the bike, Marquez says he has to work much harder on his physical fitness than he did when he won his six MotoGP world titles between 2013 and 2019.
“Now it’s harder [to be competitive],” Marquez said after his second grand prix victory of 2024 at the San Marino GP.
“Of course until 2019, 2020, I have been super-fast, super strong. I can say I was working less at home, everything was easier.
“Now, after all what happened in my life and especially my body, I need to work double, I need to be more often on the physio, more maintenance.
“But it’s the way to do if I want to continue in the top level.
“So, I’m ready to do it. It’s true that I need to take more hours [to prepare my body], but it’s my job and it’s what I will do. If I’m racing it’s because I am able to do it.”
A major factor in Marquez leaving Honda at the end of last year was because of the toll he put his body through in getting back to full fitness not being matched by a competitive package from HRC.
Moving to Gresini to ride a year-old Ducati was about seeing if he could still be competitive in MotoGP.
That has proven to be the case in 2024, with Marquez noting that mentally he feels “stronger and stronger”.
“Physically, it’s worse, because more or less in 2019 my body was ok,” he added.
“Of course, now it’s ok enough to fight on the race track to fight with the top guys.
“But of course I need to work more at home. But on mental side, now I start to feel stronger and stronger.
“Aragon, Red Bull Ring and this race [San Marino] gave me that confidence.
“In Aragon, it was always a good track for me. But [at Misano] leading the race, open a gap… sometimes you forget what that feeling is and today I was able to do it.”
