Marc Marquez believes he wouldn’t have been able to win the 2024 MotoGP title even if he was riding Ducati’s all-conquering GP24.
Marquez had to do with a year-old GP23 bike on his switch to Gresini at the beginning of this year, leaving him at a disadvantage to the factory Ducati and Pramac teams.
But despite not having the latest machinery under him, the Spaniard was rapid all through the year, scoring three wins and 10 podiums en route to a strong third in the championship, behind eventual champion Jorge Martin and runner-up Francesco Bagnaia.
Given how far ahead he was of the next rider on the same GP23 prototype as him, his own brother and team-mate Alex Marquez in eighth, many insiders were convinced that he would have had a genuine chance to add a seventh premier class title to his tally if he had parity of equipment with other frontrunners.
However, Marquez feels he wouldn’t have been able to take the fight to Martin and Bagnaia in any scenario, explaining he wasn’t “in the best moment” of his career after four miserable years at Honda.
Asked by Autosport's sister publication es.motorsport.com if he had won the title on the GP24, Marquez said: “I'm not going to say yes, because both Jorge and Pecco have had a great year.
“I wouldn't have won because I wasn't in the best moment to fight for the title.
“Maybe I would have been closer in terms of points at the end of the year, yes, but I wouldn't have won.”
Marquez made a gamble at the end of 2023 by terminating his lucrative Honda contract in favour of a move to the satellite Gresini team.
It meant having to adapt to a bike built to a completely different philosophy after 11 years of riding the Honda RC213V.
This task was made harder by the fact that he suffered a career-altering arm injury at Jerez in 2020, which required four surgeries over the following years to fully heal from.
The 31-year-old said he had hoped for nothing more than a podium and a victory in 2024, which meant anything that followed his triumph in the Aragon GP in September was a bonus for him.
“In terms of physical sensation, I'll take the test in Valencia [in 2023]. Testing the bike after 10 years with the Honda was the biggest boost I've had this season,” he said.
“Then, I have two moments, the podium in Jerez, where I saw the victory very close, and the victory in Aragon, which was not an obsession, but I was chasing it.
“Everything I had in my notebook this year, I've done it, and the rest has come as a gift. Had I written it down to be world champion? I wasn't realistic. I couldn't go from four years in hell to glory all at once.”
Marquez will be one of the only three riders to race the new Ducati GP25 next year, as he steps up to the Italian marque’s factory team alongside Bagnaia.
