MotoGP’s Marc Marquez on His New Team and Racing at Peak Performance

It’s early days in the 22-race 2025 MotoGP season, but Spaniard Marc Márquez already seems almost unstoppable. Márquez, age 32, has won three of the six grand-prix contests held so far, but, as with Formula 1, MotoGP is a race for the highest cumulative points. Marc’s one serious rival? His 29-year-old brother Álex, who, after the last race—the Michelin Grand Prix of France—is second only to Marc in the Riders’ Championship.

Álex’s position was bolstered with the Spanish Grand Prix, when he won after Marc crashed out. That sibling rivalry is as thick as blood. In the middle of April, Marc and Álex crashed into each other at the Qatar Grand Prix, and in that race, Marc went on to take the checkered flag. 

The factory Ducati Lenovo Team, which Marc joined at the start of this season after a career racing mostly for Honda, feels indomitable—especially with a 94-point lead over Álex’s BK8 Gresini squad. Yet the stress is definitely on Marc to lead Ducati to both the Team and Constructors’ Championships. “I definitely feel more pressure to not throw away all that my team is doing for me,” Marc told Robb Report recently.

There’s another goal, though, that stands above all else. Marc knows he is an “old man” in a sport that rewards youth. After all, he won six MotoGP Championships, almost consecutively, and his first was at the tender age of 20. It all came so easily to him—and yet his last overall championship was in 2019, a lifetime ago for the sport. The reason: He suffered a brutal injury in 2020 that nearly forced him to retire.

Now, after a long climb back, he’s chasing the biggest podium of all—a possible seventh championship title, which would tie him with Valentino Rossi, often lauded as the best motorcycle racer in history. Rossi won an astonishing 89 MotoGP races and seven championships in a 17-year career. Rossi is the ghost that looms over the sport, and over Marc Márquez’s career. At least for the time being. 

With all of this in mind, you might think Marc would seem intense. Surprisingly, he was anything but when he spoke with us. He seemed grateful to be racing, and for that fresh attitude he credits to the battle back from being hurt. Here, he talks about adjusting to the new team, his road back, and the one ahead.

You raced for 11 seasons with Honda, and only switched to riding a Ducati with your brother’s team last year. How challenging has the bike transition been?  

Finally, this season I’m comfortable, the balance is right, and we started to adapt the bike setup to my riding style, and now we understand very well what I need. Now I can get more out of the front tire. That is crucial for my riding style, to believe and trust the front tire. I’m forcing a lot out of the front for that reason. This is the main difference in my style compared to other racers.

You race motorcycles for a living, but are there other sports that you find compelling?

I’m a huge fan of football [soccer], and I like to play. But I look at the pressure they have. Look at the World Cup, for example. Leo Messi is in the penalty box, and all the country is watching you. I mean, that pressure is something unbelievable to understand—and to avoid the negative aspects.

Do you feel that same kind of pressure on the bike, especially with your family and friends watching? 

For me, the biggest pressure is not your family, not your friends, not your fans. They will support you anyway. My family will always love me. For me, the pressure is my professional family, my team. You have one factory behind you, and that’s a lot of people. You have many sponsors, a budget that is going to yourself and to your bike and to your project. In 40 minutes on a Sunday, one very small mistake can change everything. 

Your most prominent injury was a badly broken right arm at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix. Then you tried to race right after, while your arm was still broken. Would you make that same decision today?

I was coming from a perfect career. I had won six World Championships. So, when I got that injury, I talked to the surgeons and they said, ‘If you want to try to race, okay.’ And then just in one week, I was again on the bike—too early—and an injury that would take six months to heal, now it was four years and four different surgeries. So, I would say to that guy, to that rider: “Respect your body. Because you can miss six months, but you will gain more time later. If you don’t respect your body, you think you will gain time, but in the end, you will lose.”

Is there a part of your routine that you embrace more now than when you were younger?

When I was 20, I hated that 20 minutes of stretching and mobility before working out . . . I thought I didn’t need it. I didn’t feel the difference. But now at 32, if I don’t have that 20 minutes of mobility, I’m not training well. I need to loosen everything up. You need it when you’re older. 

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Describe how you know when you’re racing at peak performance?

I’m sure that it’s different for every rider. But for me, when I’m fast, I feel slow. Why? Because most of the time, in my riding style, I cannot be against the bike. And sometimes the feeling of being slow is really the feeling of being part of the bike. Everything is easy. But if you are fighting against the bike, it’s shaking, moving. You feel fast because you feel like you’re working, but in the lap time you are slower. So, it’s a balance: I’m trying to be aggressive, but always smooth and precise.

You’re highly involved with specific charity work. What is it, and why is it your focus?

My mom and dad taught me that the person that can help others, must. And in my career, I’ve had many injuries, many tough moments, and many people have helped me. So, when I can, I try to help somebody. 

For example, I collaborate a lot with a hospital clinic that was there when I had problems with my vision. Now they are sending doctors to help many people with just a small surgery of only 30 minutes, and it changes the recipients. Before, they needed help to be able to work, and now they can be alone, they don’t always have to depend on another person for help. I’ve met a lot of doctors and have a relationship with them and really realize the importance of vision and of their work. I also try to help the hospital where I was born.

In your opinion, can a show like Drive to Survive, which combines the drama of Formula 1 racing with character-driven storylines, work for MotoGP?

Yes. From my point of view, what did Netflix create? They created celebrities, they created actors. They created cinema. The show, in the end, is about what happens on the racetrack. That is most important. If you are going on a weekend of a Formula 1 race, then the main event is the Sunday race. But during the entire weekend there’s a show. A family can go there with their kids, they can see the cars, they can be huge fans of Formula 1—or not necessarily. 

And in MotoGP, we have the show, and we have the adrenaline. We have everything and we are already big in Europe, big in Asia. But I would like to have more races in the USA, in South America. Something like Netflix gives the chance to reach a different kind of audience, and especially the young. Kids, people 15 years old, 20 years old, they are only watching on their phones, on Netflix, watching Amazon. And when you see the excitement of MotoGP, the adrenaline, I think that would work as a great show. This is something that, step by step, will happen.