Marquez’ motivation high after fresh start, ‘Marc still the one to beat’

Alex Marquez has ditched his flailing Honda in favour of Gresini Racing for 2023 and the proven MotoGP race-winning Ducati GP22.

While Marquez joins the family-run Italian squad for his fourth year in the premier class, will his switch in machinery shake up the brotherly bond that he holds with elder sibling and Repsol Honda rider Marc?

“No, the training is like every year,” Marquez confirmed on his pre-season preparation so far. “For sure I try personally to improve some things that I have in mind, also I tried the bike in Valencia and I know which area I need to work a little bit on training, but I mean the work and the atmosphere training with my brother is always the same.

“We are professionals. We know that we need to separate the things on track but off track I have the best reference for me to train, that is Marc.

“He is really fast always on motocross, on flat track, karting, so, we always enjoy training and this will not change. We are professional as we said, the info on MotoGP we will not share for sure, but outside, we are brothers and we share our training like all our life.”

While the 26-year-old has moved from a struggling RC213V to the championship-winning Desmosedici, he still feels his brother is the one to watch once the lights go out in Portimao at the end of March.

“When you start a season you are equal with everybody,” the younger Marquez explained. “Doesn’t matter the name, doesn’t matter the bike. I mean, everybody starts from zero. Is true the Ducati comes from a really good year, Honda a struggling year - they have a lot of problems last year and I suffer. But as I said, I think we start the season everybody with zero points, we are everybody equal.

“Marc as a rider, we know that he’s the best