Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez has always been a remarkable talent. Most of the time, the biggest challenge he faces is himself and his drive to win.
The Spaniard has been through a lot over the last 15 years, and his latest MotoGP triumph proved exactly why he deserves to be considered among the greatest of all time.
Marquez has pushed through injuries that would’ve been career-ending for anyone else, and is still riding at an incredibly high level.
In 2025, he may not have had the outright pace he displayed during his Honda days, but he knew exactly where to put his bike to dominate the majority of the campaign with Ducati.
Can Alex Marquez fight Marc Marquez for the 2026 MotoGP title?
Marquez is ‘looking good’ as he recovers from a shoulder injury sustained at the 2025 Indonesian Grand Prix, which saw him sidelined for the remainder of the year.
However, the other element of his recovery looms large. Marquez knows he will be ‘held back’ by his recovery, and anticipates having to be more cautious over the next few months than he’d like to be.
READ MORE: Marc Marquez hasn’t ‘ruled out’ 2027 Honda move but he has one ‘non-negotiable’ demand
Takeo Yokoyama spotted Marc Marquez’s ‘special’ braking talent before he arrived at Honda
Marquez’s ‘best’ performance came before MotoGP, according to his ex-crew chief, Santi Hernandez, who worked very closely with him for more than a decade.
His talents were clear to everyone, but as has been the case in MotoGP, sometimes he dances a bit too close to danger and pays the price.
Marquez was ‘descending into hell’ before he learned how to cope with losing. It took him time to cope with settling for anything other than winning.
But Dani Pedrosa’s engineer, Takeo Yokoyama, could see how ‘special’ Marc was before he joined Honda back in 2013.
“When Marc was in Moto2, I was Dani’s engineer at Repsol Honda,” he said in Mat Oxley’s Marc The Magnificent biography. “Looking at Marc, he was overriding the bike in many situations. He was so, so special.
“I could see clearly that his riding style was about braking, which I believed was the best style to fit Honda’s MotoGP bike at that time. He was squeezing his front tyre so much and gaining so much in hard-braking corners.”
READ MORE: Pol Espargaro shares why Valentino Rossi changed his mind about Marc Marquez after he joined MotoGP
How Marc Marquez could have joined MotoGP one year earlier than he did
Back in 2011, while competing against Stefan Bradl for the Moto2 title, Marquez had a slim but realistic chance of graduating to MotoGP for 2012.
If he claimed the title on his first go, he would leave his bosses with little choice but to promote him. It would’ve meant that he shared the grid with Casey Stoner.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be as he suffered a crash in Malaysia and missed the final few races, but it’s crazy to think that he might have been on the grid a year earlier if things had turned out differently.
Staying in a lower category for another year was probably best for his development. 2012 ended up being a useful year for him, and made sure he was ready for the premier class when he stepped up in 2013.
Receive racing news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
