Marc Marquez “great for some things and bad for other ones” - Alex Marquez

Alex Marquez takes on the role of team leader at the Gresini Racing team this year after Marc Marquez vacated the team at the end of 2024, something which brings a different kind of pressure for the two-time World Champion.

Such was the competitiveness of Marc Marquez last year, younger brother Alex Marquez joked that he’s not regretting the #93’s move to the factory Ducati team.

“I’m not missing him because he was putting me behind in all the weekends, so it’s better he’s in another box,” Marquez joked on Thursday (27 February) ahead of this weekend’s MotoGP Thai Grand Prix.

Speaking more seriously, Marquez added: “Apart from jokes, I mean to have Marc [Marquez] is great for some things and bad for some other ones, and we know which ones: the pressure, and the focus that was on the box was quite high.”

In comparison, for 2025 the younger Marquez brother is partnered by rookie Fermin Aldeguer, making sixth-year Marquez the rider in the Gresini team with the pressure to score the big points this year.

“I have the pressure from the team that I’m the rider that needs to make the results, but when you have a good bike and you feel great on the bike you don’t feel that pressure,” Marquez said.

“When you’re struggling you feel it, but when you are fast and you are able to do the things that you want to do on the bike you don’t feel the pressure.

“We have a really nice group of people and we are really relaxed because we know that we have all the tools to make good things.”

Alex Marquez: “I felt really great from the first day”

Increasing expectations further for Marquez is the arrival in the Gresini Ducati box of the Desmosedici GP24, which last year won 16 of 20 Grands Prix.

It’s a bike that Marquez says is helping him exploit his strengths on the bike, particularly on corner entry.

“Last year it’s where we were struggling a lot, the entry, and how to turn the bike,” he explained.

“I was losing a lot at the apex that normally is my strong point and also it’s normally when with the GP22 I was able to do the corner speed, and with this one [GP24] it’s like that bike.”

The GP24 is also a bike that is behaving as Marquez expected it to based on what he observed when racing against it last year.

“What is true is that Ducati analysed things really deep, and all the information we got last year is exactly what you feel on the bike and is exactly what I was expecting,” he said.

“But one thing is what the engineers say to you and another thing is what you can do with the track.

“But I felt really great from the first day in Catalunya riding this bike, and I feel like I can do what I want to do with this bike.”

Despite his positive impression of the bike, Marquez is trying to keep a lid on expectations.

“Before we start, every rider wants to think that it’s his own year, but later on you need to demonstrate on-track,” he said.

“You can think that [it’s your year], but later on if you’re not able to make the results [it doesn't matter].

“So, I prefer to have low expectations, or realistic expectations, [...] because if you have really high expectations and you’re not able to go there, it’s hard, it’s what happened to me last year.

“So, I prefer to go into the season in a low profile and later on we’ll see where we can be.”