Twelve years ago almost to the day, a 20-year-old Marc Marquez lined up at the Losail International Circuit for his first MotoGP start.
Already a double world champion in the lower categories, the youngster from Cervera came in with a reputation. Armed with a factory Honda, he immediately set about hassling no less a rider than Valentino Rossi.
By the end of the 22-lap Qatar Grand Prix he had narrowly lost that fight for second – but Marquez still made the podium on his debut in the premier class. He’d also put his team-mate, the established Dani Pedrosa, firmly in his place: fourth.
Comfortable winner that day was a certain Jorge Lorenzo, but it is well known which way that season went after the opening night in Doha: a rookie Marquez scraped in ahead of Lorenzo to win the title. It would be the first of six crowns in the top class – so far.
And that’s the thing: Marquez is nowhere near done yet. Who else among the 2013 Qatar GP grid can say that? Nobody. Only he remains on the grid from that night.
Last year, Marquez at least had fellow Catalan Aleix Espargaro – three years his senior – for company on the Doha grid. But following the Aprilia man’s retirement at the end of 2024, Marquez arrives at this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix as the last man standing from his headline-snatching debut race.
Nor is he just making up the numbers. He’s still the class of the field while mastering his motorcycle in unfathomable ways. That’s despite an injury nightmare and a decline in equipment that would have destroyed most souls.
Granted, Marquez was the youngest man to take starter’s orders on 7 April 2013, by a significant margin in some cases - Colin Edwards is in his fifties, would you believe! It’s entirely logical that he’s the one to have made it this far.
But take into account the horror right arm injury that began at Jerez in 2020 and Honda’s spirit-sapping freefall into performance oblivion thereafter.
Getting through those challenges arguably asked more of Marquez than most. Having won six MotoGP world titles was, if you think about it, probably a burden in terms of getting through the misery of 2020-2023. He had nothing left to prove. Those world titles were six reasons to give up.
Consider too that for virtually his entire career until 2020 – junior classes included – Marquez was routinely fighting at the front of the field for race wins and world championships. That draws more from your well of mental fortitude than scratching around for a handful of points every week does.
Marquez discovered exactly this phenomenon when he became that guy for much of the 2020-2023 period. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Autosport he admitted that the only time his mind ever wandered aboard a MotoGP bike was in those grim final Honda years.
“Sometimes when I was riding three, four years ago, 10th or 12th in a race, just finishing the race, then I was thinking about other things,” he said. “But when you are there in the top three, you just think about the race.”
For all these reasons, the past 12 years have not been the average MotoGP rider’s 12 years. It cannot be taken for granted that Marquez is lining up for the 2025 Qatar GP, much less that he is doing so as favourite for the 2025 world championship.
Marquez is a survivor – and he knows it. There’s a sense in which his ability to overcome difficulties, specifically the aftermath of the Jerez high-side and the demoralising Honda years that followed, fills him with more pride than his racing achievements.
Knowing that he had to call it quits at the end of 2023, after fighting the good fight at Honda for so long, was a tough affair behind the scenes. It took him time to accept the idea that his situation boiled down to moving to a Ducati team – in this case Gresini – or retiring.
“It was a big responsibility and a super difficult decision,” he added. “I always felt I needed to be loyal to the people that gave me my whole career.
“But sometimes in your life you need to take your own decisions. And then after listening to all the people, they convinced me. They said to me, ‘You are always looking [out for] the rest, taking care of your mechanics, taking care of your family, taking care of your sponsors. Your career will be 15 or 20 years long and you need to make the best of those 15 years’.
“[At times I wanted] to stay in the same team with the same people because that was my target. But in the end I needed to find the best [team] to perform in the best way.
“That was [the choice I had] to continue with my career. Because if I [hadn’t left Honda]… I was not enjoying it. I [would have] stopped. And that [would have been] it.”
Even before that, he’d had to overcome Jerez, which he describes as the only moment in his career that he would change if he could do it all over again. Not so much the crash as the rushed return to action that ultimately did more damage to his arm.
“Coming back [so soon] was a mistake by everybody [concerned],” he said. “But I take responsibility for it because I had the last decision. The [doctors] allowed me to ride, so I took the final decision to go. If I could change that moment, I would. [It would have been] a six-month injury and then this arm [would be] working.”
Instead, Marquez has issues with it to this day. It’s the reason he prefers anti-clockwise tracks with their many left-hand corners.
“The arm is working well but it's not the same arm as five years ago,” said Marquez. “But OK, it’s acceptable for being competitive on the bike, as I’m showing. I need to work more, yes. I need to ride in a different way, yes. I need to adjust other things, yes. But the final result is there.”
That result has been domination of the 2025 world championship so far, following his switch from Gresini to the works Ducati team. Only an unexpected mistake at the Americas Grand Prix robbed Marc of a commanding points lead heading to Qatar. He arrives one point behind his brother Alex, but remains firm favourite for the title having won the other five races (three sprints and two grands prix) this year.
Whether he bags that seventh MotoGP crown or not, however, is less important to Marc Marquez than the ‘survivor’ streak he has shown so many years on from his debut.
Watch: Watch Marc Marquez decide on his grid gamble
“My ability to overcome adversity defines me more than the records,” he stated. “The ability to face challenges – that’s very important. The injury was the toughest challenge of my life.”
When Autosport asked him whether he felt he had any unfinished business in his professional career, he gave an emphatic response.
“In my professional life, none,” he replied. “It's done. If something [comes along] it’s welcome, but for me, everything is done. Whether I retire in three, four, five or six years, or [whether] I retire with eight world championships, it’s done. I mean, I'm super happy with my career.”
Twelve years on from a debut in which every other participant – barring the odd wildcard ride by Pedrosa or perhaps Stefan Bradl – has melted away from the grid, how large does that retirement realistically loom? Espargaro called it a day at 35. That’s an age Marquez will have reached if he starts an April Qatar GP in 2028.
Is it realistic for Marquez to be around in three years? Autosport just happens to ask him exactly that question.
“[I see myself] in the same place,” he replied. “Still racing.”
Dare to disbelieve him? Given all that Marquez has overcome so far, staying fit, motivated and competitive for another three seasons seems a minor ask.
What about that “20-year career” he so casually mentions? Is he thinking purely in MotoGP terms when he throws out that number? That would take him into Valentino Rossi territory in terms of longevity… Qatar 2032, anybody?
