Despite expectations, Álex Márquez retains the positives from his season with Marc

When he joined MotoGP with the official Honda team in 2020, Álex Márquez expected to apprentice alongside his brother, Marc Márquez, but the adventure was cut short. On the first weekend of the season, the eight-time world champion injured his arm and the association only resumed for a test session a week later, before the withdrawal of #93 for the rest of the year.

Álex Márquez was able to work with his brother in 2021 and 2022, continuing to ride Hondas at LCR, but the link was less direct. This link was fully re-established for the 2024 season, when the eldest arrived at Gresini, whose colors Álex Márquez had already been wearing for a year. The association was rich in lessons for the younger of the two, despite an outside view that was sometimes difficult to bear, the spotlight naturally being more than ever on him.

“There are good and bad things about having Marc as a teammate, that’s how it is”commented Álex Márquez. “The bad thing is that everyone scrutinizes you with a more clinical eye when you share the same bike and the same box. It hasn't been an easy year for me, especially at the beginning and a little before the end, I had a breakdown, I didn't understand the bike and what I was doing.”

“But I was able to learn a lot from him. We pushed each other, because it’s funny, on the circuits, when Marc is good, it’s difficult for me, and vice versa. And it helped a lot to have him in the garage with the same bike. I learned a lot, I was able to learn what couldn't be learned in 2020.

The youngest of the siblings believes that they were both able to find their place, to balance their family ties with the need to move the team forward: “We both handled it very well, always knowing where each other fit in and being very professional.”

A very good atmosphere at Gresini

Thanks to his arrival at Gresini a year earlier, Álex Márquez was able to advise his brother on the transition from Honda to Ducati and on life in this satellite team. He subsequently saw Gresini benefit from the advice provided by Marc Márquez.

“Maybe Marc brought experience to the team, which was very nice from the start. Methods, things like that. But last year, when I joined Gresini, I already since it was a super professional team, they try to improve every year and the team will try to go one step further next year.

The association ultimately only lasted one year, Marc Márquez having been recruited by the official Ducati team for the next two seasons, while Álex will remain with Gresini. The two men will thus find a link similar to that of the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

One of the most notable moments of this joint year will remain the German GP, ​​where the two brothers reached the podium together, and Álex Márquez will keep very good memories of this period in a Gresini structure itself renowned for his human side: “For the emotions, it was great. The word is family. We know that Gresini is a very big family but Marc and I, we are brothers. It was really a family with everyone and it is super nice.”

This very good atmosphere was again evident in Barcelona, ​​scene of the last race of the season then of a test two days later. Now on the official Ducati, Marc Márquez staged his new rivalry with Gresini and his brother in a humorous way, in line with what we saw him do all year long, like his dances on the podiums. Álex Márquez saw him much more relaxed than during his last difficult seasons with Honda.

“When the results are better, your personality changes. That's how it is, it's normal. When you go through difficult times at work, you are sadder… You don't lose motivation but it's harder to smile all day, etc. When you do what you want, when you like it, when it goes in the right direction, you're happier. That's what has changed. 2019, in his personality It's super nice. to have.”

With Germán Garcia Casanova