Who are we to judge Marc Marquez?

Marc Marquez Alentà hasn’t seemed to side with fate for a while now. He falls, collides with other riders, seems distracted on the track, is thrown off his bike in the air, falls, stands up, falls and falls. In 2023, at the Sachsenring Grand Prix, a track near him where he has dominated with records he has set, he conceded no fewer than five crashes, the last of which was in warm-up, prompting him not to compete in the race though the doctors had stated fit for the race. “A danger to others and to oneself,” many insiders are beginning to say.

He, the protagonist of incredible rescue operations, unprecedented in the history of motorcycling, after crawling on the ground, seems unable to escape these sirens and avoid repeated falls, taking the risk to get (very) hurt. The results don’t come, the years go by and the world championships disappear; The physique changes, the bike and the team offer no prospect of increasing performance, insiders criticize him, the fans often dispute him violently. Marquez is under pressure today as he has never suffered an injury to his head and soul in front of his body in his career and life.

After the bad accident in 2020 at the Jerez circuit that led to an equally bad accident Fracture of the humerus of the right arm, badly treated and whose environmental mismanagement has led to very long clinical repercussions, we have not seen this phenomenon dominate as ad vitam seemed to do. Due to the volatility of results and participant numbers, HRC has lost its leader and compass for the development of the bike and of course lost ground to the competition.

Not only is Honda not the best bike on the track, it’s not even close equal in terms of performance to the red arrows that look like the Ducatis in the hands of Bagnaia, Bezzecchi and the others.

So much so that today even the Japanese wingers, who are among the strongest and noblest team in the circus, seem to have fallen into a systematic crisis that is difficult to deal with. Marquez is trying to use his talent to remedy the situation, but it’s not enough. in MotoGP, the technology of mechanical means is now dominant and new champions seem worthy of confronting him such as Fabio Quartararo, Joan Mir, Enea Bastianini (now also Marco Bezzecchi) and last but not least Pecco Bagnaia.

Like all artists, the Spaniard has angular and opaque corners that he often hides poorly, especially the very personal and sometimes anti-sporting controversies Valentino Rossikind of Sport patricide obsession, which culminated in 2015 with the historic “alliance” with Jorge Lorenzo, which saw the Doctor lose his tenth title. Or the objective ease of making oneself dangerous on the track, with aggressive brawls and counterattacks that often border on the norm.

However, with the passage of time and the inevitable demise of VR46, the World Championship had forgiven the sins of youth and learned it the new phenomenon, if only to confront Marquez and the sporting bar he has set very high. The same bar that Marc can’t reach today.

But that’s the way he is: he can’t settle for eighth or tenth, he can’t go slow, especially when he realizes he’s not being effective on the bike. He can’t be slow, that’s not in his nature: either he’s himself, so fast, or he falls. He does not care. He only answers her Demon internally, doesn’t give a damn about those on the track and certainly not those off the track. Its only purpose is speed, adrenaline and winning. Not does the pilot, however And pilot, in the purest and most sacred sense. A Manifesto for Motorsport: Motorsport is dangerous, not motorsport. He interprets it in his own way, and it’s the way of a multiple world champion.

Few, if put to the test, would have the strength to try as he did without drawing a breath. Who are we to judge him?

Perhaps the only one who can really understand it is a talented rider, a world champion but also an opponent of this caliber Fabio Quartararowho declared after the Sachsenring GP: “I understand very well how he can feel. Since his injury in 2020 he sometimes manages to grab some podiums but for me remains the best“. It still is: “As a rider who gives 100% in every session, he’s crashed here and got back up every time to do better. Mentally he is certainly the strongest, but then comes the moment when you get injured, in his case a broken thumb. It’s strange of me, but I want to congratulate him on his achievement“.

Also Max ThunderstormPilot and journalist, underlines the Spaniard’s warrior spirit on his social channels: “The blows that Marquez dealt in his career have never been seen before in history, in my opinion. There are drivers who crashed often, but much less often than he did, and who injured themselves a lot more. It’s also a matter of luck, and Marc has always had a lot of that. It has to be said that he is a cat: getting up and running to the box has always been one of the most extraordinary aspects of this boy“.

A bright and sunny smile, watchful eyes, a calm and calm face. Behind this mask, the wild Marc Marquez presents himself to the world as if he had to hide his inner animal: brutal, ambitious, predatory. A pilot of immense talent and insatiable hunger.

There are only a few pilots, athletes, men like him, one in millions. Marc Marquez is prime, his alchemy of instinct and reason, madness and competition got him there one of the most brilliant performers from the history of motorcycle racing and enables him like no other to tackle riding with the handlebars in relation to speed, bend one with the bike, glide over the tarmac and defy death like no other. It allows him to win like no other.

His talent is innate, Marc Marquez like all geniusesThat is not the case, but it is soto quote Carmelo Bene.

That didn’t protect him from being human, from having to deal with fallibility, the course of history and the course of events. This development saw him become a multiple World Champion, unchallenged and unchallenged in MotoGP in the 10’s by winning six out of ten editions of the World Championship, and now he has done so the depths of defeat, in the agony of his passion. This is his new challenge: to find the strength in these sports hells to be reborn, win again and show us how it’s done.

Cover photo: Marc Marquez Twitter