Álex Márquez: "It has been a mentally exhausting season, but I have grown as a driver"

MADRID, 24 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish MotoGP rider Álex Márquez (Ducati) confesses that "being champion" of the 'queen' category is his "dream, although he admits that" today it is not a realistic goal", after a "difficult" 2022 season and "mentally" exhausting in which he has "grown as a pilot".

"Mentally exhausted," said Álex Márquez in an interview with Europa Press, after renewing with the eyewear brand 'Hawkers', with which he will launch a new collection in 2023. "It has been a difficult season, I have never hidden. But Within the difficulties, you learn, I have learned a lot. There have been good moments, but it has been a year in which I have grown as a driver despite the fact that it has been hard", he added.

The 26-year-old born in Cervera acknowledged that "everyone" expected "more this season" with the LCR team's Honda, with a final 17th place, five retirements and no podiums. "There was the possibility that it would get complicated, and there was no reaction in the right way," he lamented.

However, despite the performance somewhat below expectations, Márquez does not attribute "nothing" to his team in 2022. "It is one thing to be in the official team and another the 'satellite', it was not the same treatment as in Repsol Honda", revealed as one of the arguments to change scenery in 2023 and head towards Ducati del Gresini Racing.

"I needed the change, it was not the ideal bike for my style. I was honest in the middle of the season, I said that I did not want to continue even though I had nothing on the table, I could be at home. Then Gresini appeared", he related about his next adventure with Ducati, in a team that already included the Spaniards Sete Gibernau, Jorge Martín, Toni Elias, Álvaro Bautista and Emilio Alzamora.

Álex Márquez was already able to get on 'his' Ducati in the Valencia tests on November 8 for the next course, in a single day in which he understood his new mount "better". "It's an easier bike, but none of it is easy when it comes to going fast and looking for times when you're on the limit. The test was positive, but we were only there for one day, I wish we were already in Malaysia," he added.

Before the start of the season, the MotoGP riders will enjoy the shakedown test in Sepang, in Malaysia, from February 5 to 7, where they will repeat, from February 10 to 12, to then travel to Portugal and complete the preliminary tests in the Portimao test, on March 11 and 12.

The youngest of the Márquez will obtain data and aspects to incorporate into the next season that he will not share with Marc, despite being his training partner in the preseason. "He is my brother, but there is no need to talk about motorcycles, it is physical training. Nothing will change. On the circuit we separate very well what it is to be brothers and what the motorcycle is, until now we have tried many things together, but we are very professional He has his secrets, I have mine, and we know that we hide things from each other," he said.

Álex Márquez is a two-time motorcycling world champion, Moto3 in 2014 and Moto2 in 2019. "The most special title was the first, I also won it in Valencia. I was not the best candidate, I became the leader in Aragon and I did not reach it assessing, it was like a situation that I did not see as real. That made me handle it in the best way", he recalled, although his dream will always be "to be champion" in the premier class.

"It's my dream, but as of today it's not a realistic objective. We don't have to close ourselves off either, like Enea Bastianini -the rider he replaced at Gresini and who finished third in the World Cup- this year, but it's not real, although we will fight and "We will do our best to be as competitive as possible. Next year will be very long, with many points at stake. I think it will be difficult to see two drivers setting the tone, there will be many changes during the season", he analyzed.

Finally, he addressed the future of 'motorsport' and sustainability, when in 2027 MotoGP must use one hundred percent biofuels. "The world changes a lot from year to year, so you don't have to talk ahead of time either. Everything is progressing and that's good, also that it's entering our world. It's true that without noise motorcycles lose, it's an important part. The same in a year they say that the future is not electric and is something else. Biofuels are a first big step, "he concluded.