– For Marc Marquez there is no break. Last year he completed one of the most extraordinary episodes in sports history with the MotoGP World Championship title, and hardly had he recovered from the celebrations when he was already faced with another huge challenge.
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The injury resulting from the accident caused by Marco Bezzecchi in Indonesia brought him once again to a limit that even he probably did not think was possible.
This was especially true of the uncertainty about how his right arm would react. Because a compression of the radial nerve caused his arm to suddenly fail without warning while riding.
Marquez did not know what was happening. Eventually, on the Sunday of the French Grand Prix, he underwent his seventh operation after doctors finally found the cause of the problem.
Twenty days after the operation, the world champion returned to Mugello, where he rode with due caution. He realized that the ton-heavy stone had fallen from his shoulders that had weighed on him since the winter tests.
“I have to switch off mentally. No one can imagine the level of stress I endured in the first part of the season,” Marquez admits. “In the first five races, I didn’t understand anything at all.”
“I crashed without knowing what was happening because the nerves didn’t give me a warning signal. And then, because the intensity I put into the races in Balaton and Brno was enormous.”
“It’s impossible to sustain that over the entire season,” Marquez said immediately after his win at the Sachsenring, where he celebrated his third victory in the last four races and his second double of the year.
The comeback against Bezzecchi and Martin
The difficult start to the season combined with the competitive level shown by Marco Bezzecchi and Aprilia led many to already write off the chances of the number 93 defending his title.
Until the operation, and more precisely until three weeks ago, he himself did not want to admit that the extraordinary comeback he made had brought him back into the fight for the world championship.
This fight is also made possible by Bezzecchi’s poor form, who has only been able to collect 13 points in the last four races, compared to 119 points from Marquez.
This difference has brought the Ducati rider from eighth place, which he held after Mugello with a 102-point deficit to the leader Bezzecchi, up to third place.
Marquez is now only 18 points behind Jorge Martín, who has led the overall standings since Assen. After the Sachsenring, he flew by private plane to Mojacar in Almeria.
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It is a trip that has now become a tradition. From there he returned to Madrid midweek to ride motocross for a day before traveling on to Menorca, as he did last summer.
A vacation in which Marquez can switch off from the agonizing moments of the past months and the countless hours of caring for his sensitive right arm.
He is supported by Carlos García, his personal physiotherapist. The schedule to minimize the limitation caused by his right arm while riding proceeded in several phases after the last intervention in May.
The first was the healing phase. After that, the plan adapted to his feelings and the needs of his body. “From January to Brno, the physiotherapy sessions were numerous, but the goal kept changing.”
“Now I’m at one and a half to two hours a day,” Marquez describes. “Since the race in Assen at the end of June, the inflammation in the affected area has significantly decreased.”
“This leads to me working on the left arm because I had to compensate for the lack of strength on the motorcycle. Strange as it may sound: I have less strength in the right arm but more pain in the left.”
A new life for the tenth title
Now he no longer hides his pursuit of his tenth title. For Marquez, everything in life is aimed at being able to call up his best version on the motorcycle.
This has led him to a series of decisions that have changed his daily life. One of the most recent was leaving Cervera, his hometown, where he had just built the house of his dreams.
He moved to La Finca, a residential complex on the outskirts of Madrid, after buying the house from a former Real Madrid player. In contrast, some MotoGP riders have moved to the “tax haven” Andorra.
“I understand people who move to Andorra. In my case, I just feel free because I can live wherever I want. I was lucky to earn a lot. And that means that despite the taxes, I still have a lot left.”
Only recently was his contract extension with Ducati until the end of 2028 officially confirmed. His base salary is about eight million euros per year. That corresponds to about double his first contract with Ducati.
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