While the MotoGP season 2022 is coming to an end, we can see that Fabio Quartararo is leading the pack. Fabio is also the defending champion presently. But before Fabio it was Joan Mir and before Joan it was Marc Marquez. Marc is one of the finest riders in MotoGP. Over the years, Marc Marquez has become a staple name and a living legend among MotoGP enthusiasts. 

When a scrawny 15 year old made his debut on the grounds of the Legendary Algarve Circuit in the Portugese Grand Prix in the 125cc segment, no one knew him. No one knew that this kid would give the living legend Valentino Rossi a run for his money. Marc Marquez, the Poster boy of Repsol Honda Racing Team has had quite a career so far. MotoGP fans around the world have seen both the rise of Marquez. However, over the last three seasons they have also seen the fall of Marquez. In this article we will be looking at the life of Marquez and how his riding has changed over the years. 

Marc Marquez is a Rider for Repsol Honda Racing Factory team. He started his career at Repsol KTM 125cc team. He has been riding for Repsol Honda for about nine years now and before this he was a part of Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol. He won his first and second Championships with CatalunyaCaixa Repsol in 2010 and 2012 respectively in the Moto2 Championship. He won a total of 8 world championships, out of which 6 are with Repsol Honda. He has 2 Moto2 and 6 MotoGP titles. 

After his shift to Repsol Honda Racing, he became the most ruthless rider of MotoGP. He was the man who went on to become the next legend after Valentino Rossi. He had a history of pushing the limits of his bike. With Yamaha chasing behind Honda in every single championship, Honda was leading the pack with Marc in their roster. With a mere push through in 2015 with Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha was desperately looking for a rider who could cut through the defense Marc was putting up. 

Marc on the other hand was getting more and more dangerous every year. He started hitting corners with the Honda like a tornado everytime. Racers were confused as to where Marc got this amount of confidence that would allow him to corner. But the secret always lied with Honda. Honda’s wheelbase and suspension setup were always perfect for any road condition, which allowed them to beat almost any bike in the corners. 

Marc has had a history of accidents. Some were more dangerous than others, but that didn’t stop him from breaking the sound barrier. He had a habit of getting up and coming back stronger every next race. He has gone head to head with Jorge, Rossi and many other riders. Some accidents were so dangerous that experts are still baffled as to how he survived them. He had his first crash of MotoGP in his first year of MotoGP in Assen (2013). He endured a finger and toe injury. In 2019 he suffered a pretty dangerous crash in Thai GP FP1, causing injuries to his neck, back and pelvis. Regardless of the crash he still got up, went to the race and came out first.

But everything changed after his crash at Jerez in 2020. He highsided on the exit of turn 3 in Jerez and suffered injuries to his Humerus, which led him to seek surgery. This one crash left Marquez from participating in any further races. 

What led to the crash? Let us analyze: 

1. Unhealthy riding practices. 
2. Unhealthy riding attitudes. 
3. Honda riding management.

Unhealthy riding practices: 

Marc Marquez has had a tendency of riding very close to the insides of the corners. He has had quite a lot of disagreements with many riders over the years due to this habit. He would take risky gaps on the inside of the corners at the expense of other riders’ safety. His tumble with his own teammate Dani Padrosa and Valentino Rossi is known as one of the biggest battles of the first decade of 2000. Over the years, he has had tumbles with more riders than any other rider in the History of MotoGP. 

Unhealthy riding attitudes: 

His attitude while riding also was a reason for his downfall. He has been riding for quite a while now. If you analyze his riding, you will see he had an attitude of “do or die”. He had a tendency of pushing into small gaps that riders would leave at corners. These gaps could be achievable gaps, but are very dangerous and risky for both himself and other riders. In many cases, you would also see him only looking straight at the front, where most riders would check their surroundings before committing to a gap.

Honda Riding Management:

Honda Racing team management is responsible for the support the rider gets during the race. The racing management is responsible for all the support the rider gets from the pits during, before, and after the race. They are responsible for analyzing the race after the race and giving proper feedback to the rider. After analyzing the races of Marc Marquez in the MotoGP segment, we can see that he is very reckless and does not have proper knowledge of the tracks. 

The Crash: 

Over the years Marc Marquez has quite a lot of crashes and has also had quite a few saves from crashes. Even before his crash, Marc Marquez had a very tough save in one of the corners. During the race, Marc was a defending champion, which meant he had to win in order to keep his championship. But after the save on one of the corners in an early lap Marc came down to the 16th position. After dropping to 16th, he had to get back up. He fought his way to the 3rd position. But he wasn’t satisfied enough, he needed to be on top. So he started taking risks. Hitting corners harder and taking gaps that are virtually impossible. 

Finally, the most dreadful moment came on the 3rd turn of Jerez when he was about to exit the corner. He pushed a bit too hard on the asphalt and the bike went a bit too much into the edge of the corner, which led to him high siding. This caused him a serious injury on his right shoulder, which led to him requiring surgery. He attempted to get back to riding on the next race, but that caused him to sit out for the rest of the season.

He required a whole year of rehab before making his way back on the saddle. Regardless of returning to saddle, it was quite evident that Marc Marquez had lost his spark. He was struggling to get pole starts let alone podium positions. But in the 2022 season, Marc Marquez is trying his best to get back to his old image. He may not have any podiums, but he has made it to a lot of top 5 positions this season. 

We know Marc Marquez is rash, we know he takes risks. But we love him for being a fun rider. We love to see more and more of him. We want him to get back to his previous image of Greatest of all Time. We hope Marc is back to his old self and can rip the tracks a new one and get podiums. We want to see more close calls and rash saves that would make the whole audience skip a beat.