Marc Marquez assesses his chances of winning the MotoGP title in the current 2024 season and in the future, which for him lies with the Ducati factory team
Just before the halfway point of his first season as a Ducati rider, Marc Marquez is in third place in the 2024 MotoGP standings. His gap to the front is currently greater than his lead to the rear. While Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin are already 56 and 46 points behind, respectively, Enea Bastianini is only eleven points behind. In contrast to Marquez, all three – Bagnaia, Martin and Bastianini – are on a 2024cc Ducati
Does Marquez see any chance at all of being able to intervene in the 2024 title fight with the 2023 Ducati of the Gresini team? Or is he secretly already concentrating on the 2025 season? Because then he will also have a current Ducati at his disposal, namely as Bagnaia’s teammate and Bastianini’s successor in the works team.
“People say to me that I’m close, but you have to be realistic,” Marquez told DAZN Spain with regard to the current World Championship standings. “The reality is that I can only stay in the championship fight if I do damage limitation on Sundays. But the problem is that there are two riders who consistently finish further ahead.”
“So seriously fighting for the world title? A lot would have to happen for that,” says Marquez and knows that the greater danger at the moment is not himself for Bagnaia and Martin, but Bastianini for him: “My goal is to finish the World Championship in the top 3. But it won’t be easy to keep Bastianini behind me.”
According to Marquez, there have been moments so far this season when he has felt like a title contender. However, these moments were too rare for serious prospects of success, as he points out: “So around Jerez and Le Mans I thought, let’s see what happens in Montmelo and Mugello. But then I was far behind again at Montmelo.”
“I was closer than expected in Mugello, but it was different in Montmelo and also in Assen. And I already said at the start of the season that being consistently fast at all tracks would be crucial to having a say in the title fight. It’s not enough to be fast on one track but not on another,” said Marquez.
The Gresini rider clearly assigns the role of favorite to world championship leader “Pecco” Bagnaia and his rival Jorge Martin, who led the world championship for a long time before the Sachsenring weekend. But which of these two does Marquez think has the better chance of winning the 2024 MotoGP title?
“At the moment, I would say ‘Pecco’. He is mentally very strong. That is important. And thanks to his results, he has the momentum on his side. Of course, that could change again in two races, but the momentum he currently has is scary.”
In fact, Bagnaia has won all four Grands Prix and three sprints between Barcelona, Mugello, Assen and the Sachsenring. Only the Barcelona sprint he did not finish as the winner because he crashed there on the last lap while leading.
Without this crash in Saturday’s race in Barcelona, Bagnaia would have scored the ideal number of 148 world championship points since May 25th. By comparison, Jorge Martin has scored 83 points in the same period, Marc Marquez 77 and Enea Bastianini 66.
It is obvious that Marquez wants to be a serious contender for the world title when he joins the Ducati works team in 2025. His former Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa recently described what Marquez has put up with on the way there with the words: “He has smashed everything.”
When asked how many more world championship titles in addition to his previous six in the MotoGP class he still sees within reach for himself, Marquez replied: “Let’s tackle the next one first.” When asked further whether that means one or at least one, he says: “At least one. “