Valentino Rossi engineer claims Marc Marquez changed after his feud with The Doctor

Add as preferred source on Google

Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez’s spat is one of the biggest rivalries in the history of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, and both protagonists of the feud haven’t been the same since.

What started as mutual admiration between Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez turned into animosity in the blink of an eye.

After The Doctor realised the Spaniard was working against him during his 2015 title fight with Jorge Lorenzo, things reached a boiling point in the latter stages of the season, with Rossi taking action against Marquez at Sepang.

The MotoGP icon lost his final chance of securing a tenth world title in Grand Prix motorcycle racing, and Marquez was vilified by the Italian’s beloved tifosi and the media that Rossi kept ‘wrapped around his finger’.

• READ MORE: Marc Marquez has now ‘changed’ his view on ‘dangerous’ clash with Valentino Rossi in 2018

Juan Martinez outlines how Marc Marquez has changed since his spat with Valentino Rossi began

During an appearance on the Fast & Curious podcast, Rossi’s former engineer at Honda, Juan Martinez, touched upon the way that the Italian MotoGP icon retired from the sport.

Martinez shared his dismay at the regression of Rossi’s results and, in turn, praised the way that Marquez has been able to adapt to different bikes in recent years.

He said, “I have the feeling that, despite everything [Rossi] has achieved and what he has been, he somehow has a bitter aftertaste, and that shouldn’t be the case, because at the end of the day he should be very comfortable with what he has done.

“In the end, obviously, everyone can have their own opinion. ‘That world championship was mine,’ Max can also say that some of Vale’s world championships are his, and Sete can say that some world championships are his.

“These are things that are part of what I’m saying, but for what it meant for the championship and so on, I think a slightly different approach was needed, and not just for him.

“I think that at a certain point, those around him failed to realise that the Valentino they had was no longer the Valentino they had known all their lives. The Valentino who had surely made me good with the modifications from warm-up to race, that Valentino was no longer there, he needed other things.

“And it seems that, for example, Marc, in this case, he’s doing all that adapting. It requires a new Marc.

“In fact, from that friction with Valentino, Marc understood that he didn’t want to expose himself publicly. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to measure himself anymore, and in the end, he behaved differently.”

• READ MORE: What Marc Marquez really said in the MotoGP stewards’ room after Valentino Rossi crash at Sepang

Marc Marquez is unlikely to bow out of MotoGP in the same way as Valentino Rossi

Before calling it quits on his career in the premier class, Rossi endured 12 consecutive campaigns without claiming another title. He finished as the runner-up three times and in third place once.

The manner in which Martinez alludes to Rossi bowing out is highly unlikely to happen to Marquez, given the fact that he has hinted at potentially retiring before.

What’s more, Marquez dethroned Rossi by becoming the oldest MotoGP champion in the modern era at 32 years old.

The Spaniard’s body has taken quite the beating in recent years, with his right shoulder being the main catalyst of a three-year injury nightmare that occurred before his career-saving move to Ducati machinery in 2023.

Marquez is focused on winning whatever he can possibly get his hands on, and has made it clear that once the winners’ trophies stop flowing in, he will no longer be a regular fixture of the premier class paddock.