MotoGP 2023
On the cusp of this weekend’s 15th round of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship in Indonesia, Marc Marquez, along with a few of his rivals, fronted a press conference.
Marc Marquez
“It has been a super difficult decision, the toughest decision of my career because to break 11 years of relationship with Honda, a very successful relationship was super difficult. Yes, last week was hard on the emotional side because all my staff, friends and family are there inside that box. But sometimes you need to leave your comfort zone. And yeah, my comfort zone was Honda but yeah, it’s true that it’s been a while and I’m suffering a lot. I’m not enjoying it so I made a change to enjoy my racing again because if I’m not here’s no point in continuing my racing and continuing my career, and what I want is more and more racing in my career. The first target will be to try to enjoy it. So for that reason I chose the Gresini team because it’s a big family. They have the best bike on the grid and my brother is there so. yeah it will be a big challenge for me and a big challenge for the Gresini team but they’ve already done very good results with Alex my brother and with Enea Bastianini in the past. But it’s what I say, it will be a big change in every aspect and what I’m looking for is to enjoy it, and to smile in the helmet. If I smile, everything will come.”
Explain when you started to think of a change…
“I mean, it’s true that in the first part of the season, I was competitive but not in a good way. I was taking a lot of risks and in the second part of the season I started with a different approach and now I’m taking risks, but not the same as in the first part of the season. I’ve had many injuries. It’s been difficult, but when you’re injured and you’re in a difficult moment, then you can’t make decisions. That’s what I learned in the past. There you have to be patient. But then in the second part of the season, of course, we’ve had some nice talks with Honda. Race by race it was super difficult because every weekend my mentality was changing a bit, with a lot of doubts. But at the same time, I had contact with the Gresini team and I told them I won’t go forward with any contract, just if you want to wait for me, wait for me, but I can’t promise anything. My decision was last Tuesday after the Japan GP. It’s what I’ve said, I need to go out of my comfort zone. The easiest way was to stay at Honda with the situation under control, the bike under control, my team there, and a big salary, so that was the easy solution. But then if I want to take care of myself and my career. I need to find a new challenge and the new challenge and best place was the Gresini team in 2024.”
Were there other options?
“Yeah. Actually one year off was one of the possibilities. Like I said, racing without enjoying has no meaning. I’ve enjoyed many things in the past, but I want to fight in the present. It doesn’t matter if you have one or eight World Championships, you have to fight for the present. This was my target. But yeah, I had different options. I won’t say because I respect all those teams and all those options. The ones that were waiting for me were the Gresini team. They took a gamble because I didn’t promise anything, but then last Tuesday I decided on the night and then on Wednesday I had the phone call in Japan, which we thought was the best option for the project because I believe that they need time, they need to put all the budget on the bike. A manufacturer or brand has a lot of time, but athletes, we don’t have a lot of time. If you lose a year, that’s one year less that you have in your career. So yeah, look, I’m looking forward to finishing these last few races well with Honda because it has been 11 years where we have we won six World Championships. We will discover how the future will be with a new team and the new bike.”
Can you confirm if anyone moving with you?
“We’re still in discussions, because just this morning we signed the MOU with Gresini. Like I said on Wednesday, we started to talk with Gresini about the contract because before I didn’t want to have any distractions and I didn’t want to have any option B because my main priority was Honda. One of the big reasons, or the biggest doubts was all my team. But it’s true that in the end I’ve spoken about it with my team, I spoke with all of them and in the end they are my friends and they’ve advised me in a friendly way, not in a team way. So this was a talk that has helped me a lot to make decisions and then I was looking for myself. Yeah, I am trying to bring at least one mechanic that I think won’t be a problem, but I can’t bring all the team for two reasons: One, I will not destroy the Repsol Honda Team because we’re in October. And reason two I won’t destroy the Gresini team because they are a family where they already have their mechanics. So I have taken that decision, so I must adapt.“
Alex Marquez
Reaction to Marc joining the team..
”Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see him on a Ducati. I was expecting a faster team-mate, but not quite that fast! It will be fun and I’m really happy for the team. They really deserve to have a rider like him. Also for Marc because he deserves to enjoy his riding again. I won’t say that he didn’t ask me about my opinion but I gave him my opinion as a brother not as a rider or as a Gresini Ducati rider, more like as a brother because I know that what he has experienced since 2020, and he is suffering quite a lot in his situation up until now, so it’s time for him to make a change.This is his decision and for me it’s positive because I will have a really fast team-mate and eight-time World Champion and I can learn a lot from that situation.”
Do you think he’ll fight for wins straight away?
“It’s too early to say. Normally we’ve seen in the past that when Honda riders arrive to Ducati, they’ve found it quite easy to adapt to that bike. It was also, in my case, but he’s been riding the same bike for the past 11 years, so for sure we’ll have many things that he has to change. But yeah, he has an incredible talent. He will be fast from the first moments. But to be able to know if he can fight for the championship or wins, it’s too early to know. We still have all the winter, all the pre-season ahead of us, so we’ll see how everything goes. But for me, personally, I think it will be a really good opportunity for me to assess my level and learn from a really good rider on the grid.”
MotoGP Championship Points
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | Bagnaia | 319 |
| 2 | Martin | 316 |
| 3 | Bezzecchi | 265 |
| 4 | Binder | 201 |
| 5 | Espargaro | 171 |
| 6 | Zarco | 162 |
| 7 | Viñales | 139 |
| 8 | Marini | 135 |
| 9 | Miller | 125 |
| 10 | Quartararo | 111 |
| 11 | Marquez | 108 |
| 12 | Morbidelli | 77 |
| 13 | Oliveira | 69 |
| 14 | Fernandez | 67 |
| 15 | Marquez | 64 |
| 16 | Di Giannantonio | 53 |
| 17 | Rins | 47 |
| 18 | Nakagami | 45 |
| 19 | Fernandez | 36 |
| 20 | Pedrosa | 32 |
| 21 | Bastianini | 25 |
| 22 | Mir | 20 |
| 23 | Espargaro | 12 |
| 24 | Savadori | 9 |
| 25 | 25 Folger | 9 |
| 26 | 26 Bradl | 8 |
| 27 | 27 Pirro | 5 |
| 28 | 28 Petrucci | 5 |
| 29 | 29 Crutchlow | 3 |
| 30 | 30 Lecuona | 0 |
2023 MotoGP Calendar
| Rnd | Date | Location |
| 16 | Oct-15 | Indonesia, Mandalika |
| 17 | Oct-22 | Australia, Phillip Island |
| 18 | Oct-29 | Thailand, Chang |
| 19 | Nov-12 | Malaysia, Sepang |
| 20 | Nov-19 | Qatar, Lusail |
| 21 | Nov-26 | Valenciana, Valencia |
