Marquez’s title hopes? “Frustration after frustration” unless you’re “realistic”

Six-time premier class champion Marquez is the main talking point ahead of the 2023 season beginning - will his bike’s performance and his comeback from injury allow him to fight for another title?

"I think it's the first time in many years that we don't start as favourites,” he told GQ. 

“We're not even among the three or four favourites for the title, either because of my situation or because of Honda's situation, which is not going through its best moment either.

"You have to be realistic, at least in the first races, because otherwise you're going to get frustration after frustration."

Since Marquez claimed his most recent championship in 2019 and his horrendous injury struggles have begun, he has watched Joan Mir, Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia become first-time champions.

• “Wild animal” Marquez told surgeon: “I’ll end up on the podium or on the ground”

Mir will be Marquez’s teammate at Repsol Honda this year, Quartararo is battling his own bike in the Yamaha garage, while Bagnaia is enjoying the best bike thanks to Ducati but might find resistance from new teammate Enea Bastianini.

But Marquez knows that returning to glory in 2023 could establish him in MotoGP history.

He is one championship away from his nemesis Valentino Rossi’s tally of seven.

The added complexity of Marquez’s injury history, and his return from last summer’s career-threatening surgery, adds a layer of drama to his challenge this year.