Marco Bezzecchi
There isn’t much that Marc Marquez would change about his racing career. Perhaps he’d try to avoid some of the shunts he has been involved in.
His body has been through a lot of physical toil over the years, but that hasn’t stopped him from being the greatest MotoGP rider of the current generation.
Unfortunately for his rivals, it looks as though Marquez doesn’t plan to stop any time soon. At the age of 32, he should have many strong years ahead of him.
Where he spends them is up for debate. Ducati have offered him a nice home and a competitive bike, but would a fairytale return to Honda be too much to resist?
True or False? Valentino Rossi was a better MotoGP rider than Marc Marquez.
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Marquez could take part in a World Superbikes test as he bids to come back from a devastating collarbone injury sustained at the 2025 Indonesian Grand Prix.
Ahead of the new regulations in 2027, KTM have already made Marquez an offer as their ambition shows no signs of waning.
READ MORE: Marc Marquez tells his fans to ‘save their energy’ instead of attacking Valentino Rossi
Marc Marquez would have raced against Casey Stoner during the 2012 MotoGP season without Sepang crash
Marquez’s ‘best’ performance came before MotoGP, and he was about as raw a talent ever seen during his Moto2 days.
He had the absolute speed, but he also had to learn how not to crash. It was that trait which ended up costing him dearly in 2011.
Amid a tense title fight with Stefan Bradl, he suffered a crash at the penultimate round of the season in Malaysia, which left him with double vision (diplopia).
He couldn’t recover in time for the race, or the season finale in Valencia, which Livio Suppo has explained cost him a potential ride in MotoGP for 2012. He might have raced against Casey Stoner, otherwise.
“Before the Sepang crash, Emilio had been pushing to move Marc to MotoGP in 2012,” he said in Mat Oxley’s Marc The Magnificent book. “That was very difficult for us because we already had 2012 contracts with Casey [Stoner] and Dani [Pedrosa].
“Our only possibility was to put him in one of our independent teams, but Emilio didn’t want that. Then happened what happened in Sepang, so this story finished. But in theory, without that crash, we would’ve seen Marc in MotoGP in 2012.”
READ MORE: Marc Marquez was ‘descending into hell’ before reaching MotoGP after being taught valuable lesson
How Valentino Rossi changed his mind on Marc Marquez after he joined MotoGP
In both Moto2 and 125cc racing, Marquez spent years honing his skills to a point where he could challenge immediately after arriving in MotoGP.
Everyone knew that he had the talent, but he just had to keep it on the circuit. He has always been viewed as an aggressive rider.
But when rivals complained when he was younger, before reaching MotoGP, the older generation’s opinion on him was simple. It’s racing, and he’s pushing the limits.
Valentino Rossi’s opinion on Marquez changed when he actually had to start battling him on track himself. He quickly learned that he was a different animal.
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