Marc Marquez recently blew out 32 candles and is soon to embark on his 13th season in MotoGP, his second on a Ducati, the factory team's alongside Pecco Bagnaia.
Fresh from the tests in Thailand in which he shone by setting the best fastest lap, for the Spaniard, one of the big favorites this season, 2025 will be the year of truth.
Because while 2024 with his arrival in Gresini after the break from Honda was a gamble, on himself more than on Ducati, the season that is about to begin will be the moment of truth.
All the pawns for applying a checkmate to the new generation of riders are now in place, from the best bike on the grid to the best team, to the best teammate Bagnaia, at the same time an ally and the first of his rivals.
In fact, Bagnaia's presence on the other side of the box will be an added stimulus, to once again test his limits in the world's greatest two-wheel racing competition.
Of his own expectations, his past and more , the multiple champion has been speaking to 'El Hormiguero,' a Spanish program of which he is often a guest, just as the season is about to begin.
Marc makes no concessions and no excuses either, now he has everything he needs to get back to fighting for the biggest prize, but this year he admits that it will all be in his hands.
Having just blown out 32 candles, experience is the first of the topics.
"You think a lot more," the Spaniard began, "even if you then lower your visor on the track and warm up (laughs). But before and after you think more, it's not like when you are younger, when you are still maturing."
Experience gained over the years that can be invaluable for a rider in a risky sport like racing in MotoGP.
"That's one of the things you learn from experience, you don't have to take the maximum risk every time, every lap.
You also don't have to do it for the whole race, at the end there are always those five or six crucial laps. I always took risks, that's the style that worked for me, and that's something I paid for.
Sometimes when I finish a race, I say to myself, 'Where were you going? You didn't have to do it there....' I almost never do the walk around the track because I don't like to see the imperfections in the asphalt, I prefer the bike to warn me."
After an excellent past season that ended with third place in the standings, the Spaniard's emotions now can only be positive.
"I'm happy, I feel energetic, I'm on the best bike, in the best team, now it's all in my hands. If I want to fight for the title, it will be in my hands. I did my best this winter, now I have a teammate who is very fast, my brother also did it in pre-season, and there are many good riders in MotoGP. I will try," the Spaniard continued, looking forward to the start of the season.
The current situation would not have been made possible, however, without a difficult and even painful decision in some aspects: the move from Honda, to which he had been linked for so many years, to the more competitive Ducati.
"More than long negotiations, the problem to resolve was the doubts. I was in the best historic team in MotoGP, Honda; I had the highest salary ever, but the most important thing was my mental health. I had come from years of many injuries, and that was down to me. I sat down with them and proposed to leave by mutual agreement.
I told them that they were paying a lot of money for a rider who would not win because it was not a winning project. It is not acceptable to be tenth, eleventh, twelfth in every race....
If I can't fight to win, there is no point. I told them I would go to a satellite team to see if I could be competitive again, and they understood."
So the 2024 season started on Team Gresini's GP23, a gamble that allowed him to make it to the factory team.
"When you have a lot of experience, the team wants to talk directly with the rider," the Spaniard continued in his story, "So I met with Honda and made a decision that was very difficult, I was leaving the team of my life, my friends. If I join Gresini, I take a risk, it's like an investment.
I knew that year that if I did well, I would have a chance to move to an official team because the contracts were about to expire.
You have to put yourself out there, the failure would have been not to try, however, it went well and now I am where I wanted to be. I have a chance to try to win the title, if I don't win it, at least I will have had fun," he then commented.
The reception amongst the Ducati team was not long in coming, although there were initial concerns about the coexistence of the two champions.
"In 2017 and 2018 we fought for the World Championship title against them, and still today the same people joke that I stole the World Championship from them (laughs). If you put two roosters in the same pen at 22, it's a bad idea, it's like a bomb, but Pecco (Bagnaia) is 27 and a gentleman.
We worked a lot together in preseason, but we know that on the track each rider will look after his own interests, I know how to keep the two separate, when I was younger I didn't know how to do that.
There is unity within the team, we are Latin.... With Pecco there is chivalry, but on the track he is a fighter, as he should be."
When asked about expectations for the first race in Thailand, however, the Spaniard holds his hands up.
"I don't like to make predictions, but I'll try to fight at least for the podium" answered Marc, who then concluded by joking about the competitiveness shown by his brother Alex during testing:
"We went through three test sessions, in Barcelona at the end of the season and in Malaysia he was the fastest, I was in Thailand, so I told him, 'be careful!' (laughs)"
