Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez won his seventh premier class riders’ title in his first year in the factory Ducati team during 2025, yet he can already see his retirement from MotoGP one day.
The 32-year-old has graced the MotoGP grid since he debuted for Honda in 2013. Marquez has also regularly been the class of the field over the past decade, and he offered some fans a reminder of just how dominant he can be during 2025 after moving from Gresini to Ducati.
Marquez won the 2025 MotoGP title with a record five rounds to spare in the 17th of the 22 rounds in Japan. The Spaniard left Motegi with a 201-point lead over his brother, Gresini ace Alex Marquez. Marc missing the final four rounds through injury saw Alex cut his lead to 78.
Without Marquez requiring surgery for a shoulder injury he sustained in Indonesia, he could have broken his own record for the most wins taken in a single season of 13 set in 2014 with Honda. The Cervera native won 11 of the 18 Grands Prix that he entered in the 2025 season.
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Marc Marquez knows it will be time to retire when he cannot finish on the podium
Marquez also secured eight pole positions, 14 Sprint Race wins and 15 Grand Prix podiums after joining Ducati for the 2025 season. He only failed to finish on a Grand Prix podium in America after crashing, Spain after crashing and Indonesia after he was taken out on Lap 1.
READ MORE: Marc Marquez’s first MotoGP title with Ducati was defined by five moments
But Marquez does not intend to continue racing in MotoGP forever, and highly doubts that he will still be competing in his 40s. Instead, while Marquez admits that it would be “super difficult” to retire on top, it will be time to go when he can no longer finish on the podium.
Marquez told The Race: “It’s super difficult to stop at the top. But one day, two guys will be faster than me, [and] then three. Then I’ll realise I’m not on the podium anymore. That’s the moment to stop.”
Marc Marquez had his only podium-less season so far after his arm injury in 2020
Marquez has only ever finished a MotoGP season without a single Grand Prix podium once in his career, which came in 2020 when he missed nearly the entire year. The Spaniard only started the season-opening Spanish Grand Prix due to the arm injury he sustained at Jerez.
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His final two years with Honda in 2022 and 2023 were essentially the worst seasons of the nine-time world champion’s career. Marquez only secured one podium in 2022 and one in 2023, which helped to convince him that it was time to leave Honda and get onto a Ducati.
Marquez decided to leave Honda at the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix, and not at that season’s German Grand Prix which is widely seen as the lowest weekend of his career. He took P3 at Motegi for his final podium with Honda, with whom he won six titles from 2013 until 2019.
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