Blessed return to normality, or new normality, which finally allows us to interview the MotoGP riders face to face without problems. With a mask, yes, which does not mean that you can easily appreciate the wide smile of Marc Márquez. The one with Repsol Honda joker came to the interview with ACE in the paddock of MotorLand, with continuous laughter to begin with, although then he became more serious and left reflections of the most interesting.
“I really wanted to interview you like that again.”
“Face to face, right?”
-That’s it. It makes illusion.
-To you. Not me. (He starts laughing).
“First wow I get.” That sets the bar for the interview high to begin with. I’ll be a little tougher …
– (More laughter).
—I heard him say a few minutes ago that he had little desire to talk and a lot to go on a motorcycle. It is a fascinating way to approach an interview. What can we do to change that spirit and why is it like this?
“But I have spoken.” The thing is that they asked me at the press conference what I wanted and I said to talk little and give gas and run a lot.
– Is that because you want to remove the thorn from the last race in which you threw Jorge Martín?
“No, it’s not that either.” I am one of those who the next day understood what happened and was gone. I want to go on a motorcycle because I see that every time I am on the track I improve, even if it is very little. Even going backwards, I see that every weekend I take a little step and I want to go on a motorcycle.
—I liked that in Silverstone he soon sang the ‘mea culpa’ and it struck me that, when I went to apologize to Martín, he told him that this year things did not work out for him. Is it hard to say something like that to a partner on the grid and a rival on the track?
—I told him: “Sorry man, but nothing comes out.” An overtaking that had gone well for me every year, this year it does not work for me. Or a choice of a set-up of the wheels will be the opposite. This is also influenced by speed. When you have speed, all choices seem good. Quartararo seems to be making the right strategy now as long as he chooses the tire well, but it is because he has the speed. If one thing is missing, you make up for it on the other hand, but this year I lack speed, physicality. I lack everything and it is more likely that mistakes are made.
“Is he lacking speed because he lacks physique, because that arm is not yet at one hundred percent?”
“I have the speed, but I don’t have the speed I want or the way I want.” I have it in strokes. I am not constant and saved… The word saved does not exist for me now. When it goes away I don’t have the strength to lift the bike again like I did. I saw a video here entering turn one in Aragon, with the bike moving from one side to the other and entering the turn, something that I cannot now. I have to be realistic.
“And the magic?” Have you lost the magic?
“The magic is and is coming.” The FP1 of Portimao for me that is magic. The first round of Holland was magic. The Sachsenring race was magic. It is coming out, but they are things that now come out with a dropper and that have to come out more often.
– Are you worried about not being the pilot you were before the injury? Is there that possibility or will he be sure to be who he was?
—I don’t know if I’m going to be the Márquez that I was, but I am satisfied with a different Márquez fighting for titles. Or I settle for a different Márquez, but riding as he wants in each situation. This will mean that we are fighting for front positions. At the moment, I can’t drive the way I want. In some curves yes and in others no. It is very tiring and it tires me a lot to talk about this issue, because I have always been one of those who has ignored or tried to avoid the issue of discomfort, such as when my shoulders hurt. I did not talk about it, although I had discomfort and at the end of the year I had surgery, because if it does not affect my head and they ask you about it all the time, but now it is such a great annoyance that I cannot hide it. I have to be realistic with the moment I’m in.
– Can this lack of aggressiveness be compensated, by the circumstances, with more intelligence or even being more conservative?
“Yeah, but I’ll never be the conservative Marc.” Maybe I don’t ride exactly the same as before, but there are certain types of bikes that I can ride the way I want to. There are some disciplines I train with where I’m already riding as fast as before.
-Which?
—Motocross and ‘flat track’. Where I am not yet is in speed. There are localized problems and we are working on it.
– It will also influence that the Honda is not as good as it should be. Is it slower than you imagined?
“It’s being slower than I imagined, but the deadlines they told me are being met.” I thought that, once I got on the bike, the arm would muscle quickly and would put itself in place, but it has an adaptation and the bone is not yet 100% welded. It goes little by little.
“Have you been given a date on when it will be okay?” Will you be hitting your first date next year?
“The answer is that it is better than now.” Hopefully yes.
“How much does this uncertainty screw a cannibal like you?”
“Now I take it well and it doesn’t mess around, because the expectation is low.” When the expectation is higher, the level of frustration is higher. When you are realistic, the frustration is lower. Yes, at the beginning there were some races where I screwed up, like Le Mans, Mugello and Montmeló, where I couldn’t. Germany gave me a lot of reassurance to see that I had not forgotten. I got to a left-hand circuit where I could have my right arm looser, without using so much force, and I was doing the same time as before, riding in the same way. If you evade your world and forget the outside, it is easy to carry it.
—Now that you are more vulnerable, do you notice that others see you like this and that they hit you with some axes that had not hit you in your life in MotoGP?
—Yes, they hit me with the ax, but they are the ones who hit me on a motorcycle and I don’t complain. I think they have touched me more times this year than I have, but I’m not complaining. It is what it is and nothing happens. I’m the first to say that I went over to Silverstone. I tried an overtaking that you then say to yourself: “Where are you going?” At that moment I felt like that and I had a bad idea of the situation. Voucher. It is normal. I am not afraid of anyone and I do not see that anyone is afraid of me.
“Who is surprising you more, Quartararo or Martín?”
—The two are impressing, but I’d say more Martin. Quartararo was what was expected of him a year ago and he is doing it now. I was more surprised by Quartararo last year than this one. Now he’s doing what the second half of the 2019 season did. He’s going faster than the rest. The one who is surprising the most this year and leaving the most sensations is Martín.
– Who is Aleix-Maverick betting on the duel for being the best Aprilia?
“I’m very bad at betting … For speed and talent, Maverick, but Aleix’s work and the experience he has with that bike can make up for it.” We’ll see who goes faster. It is a project that Maverick likes because of the way he is.
“What do you think of Rossi’s farewell?” You have six races left with him on the track.
—MotoGP is going to miss him, because he is the rider who drags the most people on the circuits. He has a unique career, available to very few. It is unique. It has a great track record. He has achieved many titles and the way he has. He has dragged people to the circuits and MotoGP has to be grateful to him.
“How would you like your farewell to be?”
“I can’t imagine it.” I see it far away and now I see it further than before.
“Being in the dry dock for a year has made you want to stay longer now even more?”
-Yes Yes. I have more desire. There is a great motivation to recover and ride a motorcycle the way I want. If I see my retreat far away or not. I do not know. Valentino said in an interview that if it were up to him he would stay for more years, but the rivals and the results in the end end up pushing you away.
—Joan Mir told me to ask him if MotoGP has changed in the last two years.
—The biggest change is that there are more bikes ready to fight for a championship. When I came in 2013, there were four bikes and you got one of those four or you had no options to fight for the championship. Now you have a lot of motorcycles. 2019 was already like that, but now there are even more. This makes everything more open.
-That is good?
—For the pilot it is good and also for the show and the spectator.
“What would you ask if you were a journalist to Mir, the pilot who succeeded him on the throne?”
—Well, how is the management of defending a title, which sometimes seems easy. (Serie). That’s almost harder than getting it.
—The last one: Will Marc Márquez ever be MotoGP champion again?
—I promise here that I will try with all my strength and my soul, but… If it were up to me, of course I did.
“But what do you think?” I believe that it will be.
—If I’m here wearing the Repsol Honda polo shirt and cap, I think so. Otherwise I would be home.
“By the way, renewing four years for Honda got everyone off the hook.” Isn’t that an exaggeration?
“I think it’s a hit.” I am not uncomfortable. I am good and convinced of my brand. It was a success and it was something that had never been done before, so I had to be the first in something last year. (Serie).
“Give your mother a kiss for me.” Well, he will not have suffered at home during the recovery …
“I’ll give it to you when I get home on Sunday.” She suffered it, but she wanted me to recover and not because she watched all the races at home with her and she told me that she had gotten used to it and that she was going to miss me. Now with the Silverstone scares, since FP1, she passes them alone.
“The good thing is that she has both children in the same race and everything happens faster, right?”
-Yes. He tells me he can quietly spend all morning doing things, making food and then preparing the vermouth and watching the race.
-I wish you good luck.
“Thank you, Mela.”