“The bad thing” about being Marc Marquez’s MotoGP team-mate
“Having Marc means that when you open the box there are 20 journalists in front of you”
Alex Marquez has revealed that the added “pressure” that comes with having Marc Marquez as a MotoGP team-mate was the worst aspect of his 2024 season.
Eight-time world champion Marc Marquez made the shock decision to quit his factory Honda contract a year early to take a GP23 Ducati at Gresini Racing for the 2024 season.
Looking to rebound his career after several difficult years since his serious arm injury in 2020, Marquez went on to win three grands prix - the same as world champion Jorge Martin - on the 2023-spec Ducati and will move to the Italian’s factory squad next season.
Marquez’s arrival to Gresini brought with it more attention than the satellite squad had previously been exposed to, which is something Alex Marquez - Marc’s younger brother - found difficult to adjust to initially.
“The bad thing is the pressure and how the people who have you more in a magnifying glass look at you,” Alex Marquez told Relevo.
“And especially in 2023 it was a very relaxed box, we were not constantly in the spotlight and having Marc means that when you open the box there are 20 journalists in front of you who are super aware of everything that happens inside the box.
“And not only on his side, but also in the whole box in general and all that pressure, not only from journalists but also from people from outside who pay more attention, because that's the bad thing.
“And also on occasion, especially at the beginning seeing the team in general as more nervous.
“In the end they had an eight-time world champion inside the box and there was a little more nervousness.
“It is true that after two, three, four races the situation has normalised and it has already been a super relaxed atmosphere.”
The Marquez brothers were previously team-mates at Honda in 2020, though they only raced on track together once prior to Marc’s season-ending arm break at the Spanish GP.
Alex Marquez will remain at Gresini next season and will ride a GP24, while his brother’s place has been taken by rookie Fermin Aldeguer.
Having enjoyed grand prix podium and sprint victory success in 2023 with Gresini on the GP22, Alex Marquez had a tougher season in 2024.
He made just one visit to the podium on the GP23 at the German GP, where he finished third behind his brother Marc, with Alex ultimately ending the year eighth in the standings.
That Germany podium marked the first time in 27 years that two brothers shared a premier class rostrum, after Nobuatsu and Takuma Aoki did so at Imola in 1997.
