Everything happened, as it could not be otherwise for the presentation of two pharaohs of MotoGP, Marc and Àlex Márquezin the region of Riccione, in Italy, while the waters of the Adriatic caressed the glass walls of the Cococircó nightclub, where, in the presence of more than 500 guests, the most anticipated presentation of 2024 was held, which featured the brothers from Cervera (Lleida), who this year will pilot two Ducati ‘Desmosedici’ 2023, to try to get their head in each grand prix and, if they can, not only win the individual title but also the team title, which would allow them to be champions of the world the same year, something they already did before, but in different categories.
The presentation was sonorous, luminous and beautiful, full of special effects and with the friendliness that the Márquez family have plus the familiarity of the Gresini family, chaired by Nadia Padovani, the widow of the Italian champion. “We have achieved it and, yes, although it may sound cliché, it is the greatest dream of our lives, to have the Márquez family with us. Well, actually, and I know this better than anyone, it was Faust’s dream.
“It has been crazy, a rush, not living during the last months of last season,” he says. Carlo Merlini, Padovani’s right-hand man in the Gresini Racing Team. “It was a life without living, or living on the wire, because one day it was yes and another no, but we knew how to wait for Marc and, in the end, we received the jackpot. What’s more, there was a day when I thought I would wake up and everything I had lived and dreamed of, yes, would be a lie. He would open his eyes and, without suspecting it, he had lost Marc. But no, here he is with us to make us dream, this time, of the best.
united again
They have always been seen tremendously happy, always. But, now, at the beginning of 2024, they are very happy, united and excited because they have reunited in a family team where Nadia Padovani, the widow of the legendary Italian champion Fausto Gresini, has achieved her husband’s dream, bring together two great champions on the same team.
They say that they will help each other, “well, no more and no less, than what we have been doing all our lives,” Àlex clarifies, but they also say that they will fight on the track arm in arm and split fairing if, when the time comes, they find themselves fighting for a place. from the podium or, who knows, until victory. “That already happened in Portimao-2022 and sparks flew, we didn’t hold anything back,” recalls Marc. “If necessary,” Àlex shouts, laughing, “the victory should be for me, leave me one, the first, at least! ” “What’s up, what’s up! Nobody needs it more than me, who has been without anything for four years,” adds the eight-time world champion.
“The two brothers are very different. Alex is very sweet and Marc is pure rock and roll. I love them both”
Widow of Fausto Gresini and owner of the MotoGP team
Padovani, who today is the happiest person, by far, on the planet, although Marc is very close behind him (“I finally managed to be the master of my destiny: I took a gamble and, now, I have to prove that this change has been worth it.” the shame”), he assures that “it seems unreal, right? having them both here, together, with us, ten titles in the same team and in MotoGP. Fausto would be very proud of us!”
Both no one and the rest of Gresini’s staff are aware that the ‘call effect’ that Alex has exerted has been very powerful for Marc to end up sitting on one of his Ducati ‘Desmosedici’. “Marc is a humble, serene, very kind boy with great determination,” explains Padovani. “He is very different from Àlex, who is sweet and sensitive. I would say that Marc is pure rock and roll.
Happy Ducati? I don’t know
Little has been said in this bright and happy presentation, tremendously happy, about how little (or nothing) the Ducati bosses bet on conquering Marc. What’s more, the champion has denied everything, in his own way (that is, with a mischievous smile, which denotes knowing that it was like that), pointing out that “I would be incapable of going to a brand that did not love me”, but Padovani has recognized it: “Borgo Panigale (Ducati headquarters) did not welcome that We signed Marc so as not to generate tensions within the brand. I, however, think that for Ducati this signing and this team that we have completed should be a source of pride. Well, actually, I know it is,”,
It goes without saying that Àlex wants to be the first to benefit from having his brother by his side, after moving Marc to the dark side of boxing (“in this team, the veteran and expert is me, so we have to respect my place in the workshop”). “We have always understood each other with just a look and now that he has settled down, which is what I have helped him with the most and I am not joking, no, I will help him adapt to the Ducati quickly and, then, I will take advantage, I am sure, of its progression, of its speed. “This guy was already fast on the tricycle.”
Àlex recognizes that we have to expect the best from Marc from day one. “Well, that’s what happened in the Valencia test, right? He got on the Ducati and went fast almost without wanting to, without intending to. One thing I can assure: he has not lost his magic, no, although it will not be easy for him, since the competition is very tough in MotoGP. Regarding his adaptation to the ‘Desmosedici’, Àlex agrees with Marc: “A motorcycle on which everyone and riders with different styles go fast, is an ideal motorcycle for the best. If the bike is fast, easy, competitive, good champions adapt easily.”
Marc, who naturally has been the great protagonist of this first day in the Gresini ‘team’ (“he has been all his life, I’m used to it, no problem!”, pointed out a sarcastic Àlex), has “like main mission at the start of 2024 and, in that, I also need Àlex’s help and I have already told him.” dismantle the theory, the rumor mill, the sentence, the speech, the story that he is going to leave and that, from the first day, he is going to win the race and also, also, snatch the title from the two-time champion ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia, curiously ( or not) the real boss of Ducati.
“The veteran of this team is me, so he will go to the left side of the box, because it is the place of the last one to arrive”
Gresini Racing Team driver
“Expectations are very high and I was not the one who put them up there, so high, so illogical, so unexpected,” comments the eldest Márquez Alentá. “I have come to read, to hear, that the grill is afraid of me, but what is this! I haven’t won a race in two years! A little please. Fear on the grid? Not even if he came, like ‘Pecco’, from winning two titles in a row! No, no, seriously, let’s go easy. As ‘Cholo’ Simeone would say, game by game, please, race by race.”
That does not mean, Marc continues to clarify, that he knows that his aura of champion, of fighter, of “all or nothing”, will accompany him throughout his life, even injured, even operated on, even injured, that “he is extremely excited, with the adrenaline to the fullest Excited does not mean that he lives with a blindfold on his eyes. Excited means that I am in the place I wanted, with the bike I wanted and willing, first, to adapt to it, which I don’t think will be difficult; then, to adapt to my new technical team, with Frankie Carchedi at the helm, who seems to me to be another passionate about racing, precision and who, like me, never looks at the clock. And then, lastly, when we are all in control, I already have a list of things, of improvements, in the notepad of my cell phone to start taking steps, to feel more comfortable, competitive and faster on the Ducati . “That is the process and it is long until you win, very long.”
The fashion team
Marc is perfectly aware of the steps he has taken, the decisions he has made. “I don’t have to repeat that it hurts me and everyone knows it, separating from Honda, Alberto Puig and Santi Hernández and the boys, it hurts me a lot, but I had to put myself to the test, I must know if, once the physical problems were overcome, I would “I agree to ride, I am competitive with a good motorcycle and I can, as I want, extend my racing career even further by several years.”
“My first objective, from now on!, is to lower the bar of illusions, since I haven’t won a GP for two years and people believe that this means arriving and winning. Are we crazy?”
Eight-time motorcycle world champion
The new leader of the Gresini Racing Team is not only amazed by the noise generated in the ‘paddock’, not only in the surroundings and in the networks of the ‘motards’, that he will now win the first GP of 2024, “but, even, that people start to wonder what I will do and where I will go in 2025! Are we all crazy or what? 2024 has not started and there are already those who write about my destiny in 2025. Oh my God!” And he closes this speculative chapter with a resounding: “More gas, more doors will open but, first, you have to put yourself in the right place, which will not be easy, I insist.”
The truth is that we have seen a Marc who, possibly, has regretted (a lot) for having shown, so openly, his happiness in the short test in Valencia. That smile that escaped him as soon as he took off his helmet when he returned to his box and smiled, mischievously and openly at Carchedi, his new engineer, was the normal, logical sign that he had got it right and the Ducati, even the 2023 one, with which he will run this year, is the bomb.
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That’s why today, at the presentation in Riccione, close to the Misano Adriatico circuit, Marco Simoncelli wanted to tone down that smile, although he was no longer in time to stop the euphoria, the floors, of his fans. “When I got on the Ducati I felt butterflies in my stomach again. You have heard me tell that many times. Those butterflies are a good sign… and my smile was simply one of tranquility. It was a ‘I haven’t forgotten to pilot’ thing. It was ‘I’m fast, I can be even faster.’ It was a sign of success, of relaxation, but never of ‘I’m ready’. To be ready, I insist, there is a world left, but I believe we will get there. “I don’t know when, but I know that I have everything in my hands.”
Regarding his feelings with the Ducati compared to the Honda, total silence. Regarding what you like most (and least) about one another, total silence. Regarding his visit to the Ducati factory last Thursday, total silence. “Not a word will escape me about the Ducati. All motorcycles are good, here what it is about is braking, or being able to brake, later than others and accelerating earlier. If the bike allows you that, the rest is on you and, I repeat, physically and mentally, after a lot of suffering, I feel ready, prepared, encouraged, but let’s leave the dreams for something later.