It might sound counterintuitive to hear a rider declare their crashes are down to the confidence they have with their bike, not a lack of it.
But that's exactly what Marc Marquez has attributed his recent flurry of qualifying falls to, the six-time MotoGP champion claiming they are not only part of the process of adapting his riding style to Ducati after a career spent on Honda machinery - but that they're happening now because his recent run of success has given him the confidence he's so far been missing.
Marquez finally tasted success for the Gresini team at this month's Aragon Grand Prix before immediately backing it up with a win at Misano a week later - victories that indicated he was back on the right path ahead of his transition to Ducati's factory team in 2025.
However, according to Marquez, it's not just the highs but also the lows that hint at his current form, with the multiple crashes that we've seen during qualifying in particular a result, he said, of his new-found assurance.
It's all kicking off! 🚨@marcmarquez93 is in the gravel as @88jorgemartin holds provisional pole! #EmiliaRomagnaGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/2HSELo0U1A
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 21, 2024
Marquez crashed in the practice session before qualifying at the second Misano round last weekend, again on his first run in Q2, then narrowly avoided doing so for a third time on his second run. He also crashed in Q2 at the first Misano round, making his grand prix and sprint race victories from eighth all the more impressive.
"Because life is like this!" Marquez joked when asked at last weekend's Emilia Romagna GP why he keeps crashing out of qualifying.
"Trial, error; trial, error. The problem is that to learn and to try, we are trying things in front of millions of people. We need to accept that, but I will keep trying.
"I feel uncomfortable, but I need to understand why I feel uncomfortable. Not putting enough load, putting too much load. It's like this, and luckily I crashed at Turn 3 in qualifying, because I also had a moment there during the [sprint] race.
"But life is like this, and I will keep trying."
That will remain Marquez's approach coming into this weekend's round in Indonesia, at the Mandalika track where he's yet to finish a race or a sprint.
"I have the confidence of the victories, and I'll try again in Indonesia and maybe we'll finish in the gravel again, but we’ll see. We have to improve for the future.
"Of course, the fact is to win races and fight for the top gives you confidence to try things. In the past, if you tried but felt like it was never going to arrive - like no good news was going to arrive - then you start to try less. But now, good things are arriving so I try when I need to try."
He also elaborated on the shape that work needs to take, too, explaining that the very different way in which he approaches setting a laptime on a Ducati Desmosedici versus Honda's RC213V is what continues to hold him back.
The two are very different concepts of bike: the Ducati is long and low and needs help from the rear tyre to turn into a corner, as opposed to the more nimble Honda's reliance on the front - which created a habit that Marquez says can't simply be overwritten overnight.
"I feel uncomfortable with new tyres, all the season," he explained. "When the tyres have six or seven laps, in some corners I'm faster than I am with the new tyres.
"It's there where I need to understand a few things, and this GP we've started to try some small things with the electronics to try and understand my riding style.
"But it's true that I feel uncomfortable with amazing grip on the rear that I was not used to all my career.
"The way to do the time attack all my career, the concept was different. Totally different with another bike. This is the hardest point to change."
Marquez trails championship leader Jorge Martin by 60 points with six rounds left on the calendar, making him a long shot for the title but still keeping him in the game in theory.
He said at Mandalika of his approach for the rest of the campaign: "For me, I've already achieved my target for this season - so [simply to] keep enjoying will be the key."
