Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez returned to the top of MotoGP in 2025 by winning his seventh premier class title, yet questions about when the Spaniard will retire continue to bubble away.
The 32-year-old was in a different league to the rest of the field last season, as he left Ducati with zero regrets about snubbing compatriot Jorge Martin to sign him. Marquez recorded 11 Grand Prix wins, 15 podiums and 14 Sprint Race victories across the 18 rounds he contested.
Such was his dominance that Marquez won the 2025 MotoGP title with five rounds to spare, as he left round 17 in Japan with a 201-point lead over second place. Gresini’s Alex Marquez would cut his deficit to his brother to 78 points after Marc sustained a season-ending injury.
When do you think Marc Marquez will retire from MotoGP?
Max Biaggi expects Marc Marquez will retire after his 10th world title
Marquez’s shoulder injury requiring an operation in October prevented him from potentially beating his own record for the most Grand Prix wins in a year of 13, set in 2014 with Honda. Ducati paused talks with Marquez regarding a new contract to focus on his recovery, as well.
READ MORE: Marc Marquez’s first MotoGP title with Ducati was defined by five moments
The Cervera native is set to be out of contract with Ducati at the end of the 2025 season. So, Marquez is weighing up returning to Honda against staying in Borgo Panigale for the start of the 2027 MotoGP regulations. Yet how much longer he will race in MotoGP is up for debate.
Max Biaggi expects Marquez’s “priorities will change” and he will retire from MotoGP once he has won his 10th world championship. Marquez has so far won seven MotoGP titles, to be level with Valentino Rossi’s career haul, on top of his 2010 125cc and 2012 Moto2 titles.
“You have to be in his shoes,” Biaggi told Moto.it. “It must be said that his career has been phenomenal. Returning to winning ways after 30 years [of age] in MotoGP has never been done before. That alone is a plus, and now he might be chasing that 10th world title.
“I think that once he gets there, if he reaches that goal, maybe his life priorities will change. I don’t know, you have to be in his head. Or maybe he’s also hungry for competition and will race as long as he wants. It’s difficult to judge.”
Marc Marquez will retire when he can no longer finish on the podium
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Marquez says he will retire from MotoGP when he cannot finish on the podium, as he would then realise that there are at least three riders on the grid who are quicker than him. He has not finished off the podium in more than three successive races since he left Honda in 2023.
His longest podium drought since leaving Honda came during his first three races for Gresini in 2024, before securing his first rostrum on a Ducati GP23 with P2 in that year’s Spanish GP. Marquez also went podium-less across two races three times in 2024, but not once in 2025.
But Marquez’s old Honda boss Livio Suppo expects the Spaniard will call time on his MotoGP career much sooner. Suppo expects Marquez will retire when he accepts one rider is quicker than him, as the Cervera native will not stay around if he is not regularly capable of winning.
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