Six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez has laid out his plan for returning to race action ahead of his first venture back onto a Repsol Honda machine later this week, as he spoke to the media at the San Marino Grand Prix.
The Spaniard is not taking part in this weekend’s race in Misano but will instead return for testing on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Carrying both the lessons of 2020’s disastrous early return to action and the ongoing limits on his own physical performance, Marquez said Tuesday’s outing will be as much an assessment as his test at Motorland Aragon on a CBR600 last week, and indicated he was in no rush to actually return to racing.
Hoy tengo sonrisa permanente😁 Después de mucho esfuerzo vuelvo a subirme a la moto 🏍 Gracias a todos los que estáis detrás empujando siempre! Seguimos!! 💪🏼
–#MM93 pic.twitter.com/6WxiaPn4FY
— Marc Márquez (@marcmarquez93) August 31, 2022
“It’s true that we are going in a good way,” he said. “The rehabilitation is going in a good way, but the timing is the timing. Two weeks ago, I wasn’t pushing a lot in the gym, working with elastics, then in the last week and a half I’ve started to increase quite a lot – but the muscles need to take time.
“Especially more than the muscles, I was riding and living one year and a half with one arm 34º rotated, and now I need to re-adapt some movements, even in a normal life but especially in riding.
“I need to understand the way to do it and the muscles feel some stretches where it is not useful or good.
“It’s going in a good way, but it needs time, and the doctors have told me that maybe only in the winter will I make the last step.
“The important thing is that I have an acceptable level to start riding the bike, but not the way that I want. I still have a long way to go.”
With that “long way to go” still to be clearly defined as Marquez eases his way back into action, it seems that his return to full and normal race action at some point over the final six rounds of the year will be as much a chance for rehabilitation as it will be any real effort to pick up any big results.
“I will return this year,” he said. “But if I am here with the intention of testing on Tuesday – I don’t know about Wednesday – it’s because the doctors have told me that it is 100% safe and the bone is completely fixed. It’s only about time and kilometres and hours and hours in the gym to try and grow again the muscles.
“With that progression, that transition, sometimes you push and push and for some reason you create another pain in a muscle or a tendon, and you cannot control this. For that reason, I cannot say to you ‘I will do the test and I will race next weekend’. I need to understand when I ride the bike.
“[At Aragon] I rode the first day and got up on the second and said ‘OK, it’s impossible.’ But then on the third day I was fine. I only did two days, and I need to understand here with the MotoGP where I am.”
But while his return might be set to be somewhat piecemeal at this weekend’s test, there’s one thing that he’s absolutely certain about: when he does return to MotoGP racing again, it will be on a full-time basis and not with the intention of potentially dipping in and out of the remaining races of 2022, five of which are set to come in only a six-week period.
“When I will return, it’s because I want to race all the races,” he insisted, “not because I want to race one here and then stay at home again. When I come back, it’s because the intention is to race all of them. It’s true that I’ve pushed a lot to be here at this test, increased [the preparation] a lot in the past few weeks to be here because it’s important for me and for Honda.
“But it’s more important for me than it is for Honda, because it’s better to try the bike in a test with no pressure than in a race weekend. After it, I’ll understand how the level is and what the reaction of my arm is, and I will understand if it’s possible to race in Aragon or not.
“You know me: if it’s possible, then I’ll try. But if not, then I’ll wait. We’re in a moment where we need to understand how it is day by day.”
