Alex Marquez: “The more you are an *******, the more you learn!”

He will leave his brother Marc Marquez and Honda and feature for Gresini Ducati in the 2023 MotoGP rider line-up, as the replacement for Enea Bastianini who is partnering Francesco Bagnaia in the factory team.

A disastrous year for Honda - during which they didn’t score a point in a MotoGP race for the first time in 40 years - ended with Alex Marquez 17th in the MotoGP standings, and Marc 13th.

"This season has become very long and psychologically hard,” Alex said. 

“From the moment you know you're going to change teams, the manufacturer you're racing for won't bring you more updates and better, but will let other riders try them out.

"Everything I have experienced this year will give me more strength for what will come, in 2023 more than a goal of result I have the goal of rediscovering myself. 

“From bad times you learn a lot, they make you more solid for the future. In MotoGP, the more you are an *******, the more you learn. 

“And then you always have to reinvent yourself, take strength even from where everything seems to be negative.”

Alex Marquez’s switch from Honda to Ducati is notable in part because of what it might mean for his brother’s future.

Marc’s hopes of a seventh premier class title depend on his own fitness, but also on the reliability of his bike. After making his return from a fourth major operation this year, he proved his own physical recovery but the same cannot be said for his bike.

He was left complaining at the postseason test about the current state of Repsol Honda’s 2023 prototype. 

Now with his brother Alex in the camp of the new champions, even more pressure will be piled onto Honda to keep their star man happy.