Today a new episode of 'DuraLaVita' has been published on its YouTube channel, and the protagonist is Jaime Alguersuari.
Wearing his suit, he appears commenting and thanking the award he received a few days ago at the FIM Gala, which took place in Palma de Mallorca.
After that, he makes a very brief summary of the 2024 season, but focuses entirely on Marc Marquezz and his first year with Ducati.
To sum up the 2024 season, Jaime Alguersuari says these words at the beginning of his statements:
“We have the Champion, Jorge Martín, with a lot of merit, and the Runner-up, Pecco Bagnaia, and curiously, what forces me to put on my hood today is the third, Marc Marquez.”
A note is that most journalists were talking about the possibility of Marc becoming Champion with the Ducati and this is what Alguersuari says about that subject:
“If Marquez were to become Champion, many colleagues at DuraLaVita said that Marquez was very doubtful because of his physical capacity, which had been reduced by four years, a serious injury and his supposed age.
When they asked me if I thought Marquez could shine, they didn’t ask me if Marquez could win on the bikes that had been offered to him, that is, the second series of the four GP23s.
The question was directly if Marquez would become World Champion and there was a very strong intention that was shared by a very high percentage of the press at the time.
I said that if I didn’t guess right, if Marquez were not World Champion, I would put on a hood. And look how curious that my hood is red.”
Jaime responds to his own 'mistake' about the eight-time World Champion: “Why was I wrong when I answered about Marc Marquez?
Well, I repeat that I am not a fan of Marc Marquez, I am a fan of his achievements. Because Marc Marquez to Marco Bezzecchi with the same bike, at least 200 per year.
And that's what I said to my friend Davide Tardozzi, 'you did well'. Last year with the GP22, Marco Bezzecchi finished third.
That means that if you add to the third place last year the points that Bezzecchi scored plus 200 points, which is what Marc Marquez would have scored, you would find that he would have won the Championship last year.
The GP22 and GP23 were almost the same, and not what has been said this year about the GP24 and GP23.”
The former rider recounts the '93's move from Honda to Ducati, how and when it happened:
“Marc Marquez, his decision to leave Honda in MotoGP, after 11 years with Honda. The entire start of conversations with Ducati began at the end of 2023 with the intervention of even Dorna.
Ducati, in principle, was not in favor of it, it had made a very clear bet on its boys, relatively young, maximum 27-28 years old and Marquez did not fit into the puzzle.
That's when the generational issue came into play, everyone began to see Marquez 4 years already finished with a Honda that was neither going, nor going, nor was expected.
But Marquez insisted when Ducati in the end, due to general pressure, decided to bet on Marquez and Marc even said if you don't have a GP23 I'll settle for a GP22, that's a mess.”
According to Jaime, Marc marks a before and after at Ducati, this is how he relates it:
“Marquez was willing to take on whatever with Ducati and when Ducati internally accepted we were still talking about 2023. Ducati engineering decides that Marquez cannot break the melon and split it in half and therefore they decide to separate the GP23 from the GP24 in a way never seen before and we have seen it with Bezzecchi who was 250 points or more behind Marquez and was third but what happened to the rest of the four GP23s, missing in combat except for his brother Álex who was the best after Marc, don't tell me that's not epic”.
To finish his statements about Marc Marquez and his work at Ducati, Jaime Alguersuari concludes:
“Marc Marquez breaks the melon of the four untouchables, because there were 4 possibilities of winning the World Championship, although in reality there were 2, but to win the title nobody was going to catch them, nobody was going to catch the four official bikes, it was impossible.
Well, you know what happened, you know because the World Championship has ended and only two were untouchables: Martín, who won the title and Pecco afterwards. But what does Marquez do, breaking between the 4 official ones and getting in the middle?
Marc gets in with a bike that nobody expected. It is not until the World Championship has ended that everyone has adjusted to reality and has said that Marquez's thing is because the bikes were very similar and none of the people gave an opinion on what Marc Marquez's chance was.”
