Marc Marquez will attempt to ride in this weekend’s Andalucian Grand Prix at Jerez, only a few days after breaking his right humerus at the same circuit and subsequently undergoing major surgery to install a plate onto the bone.
There’s no doubt that his return won’t be with the intention of winning Sunday’s second race of the season. Rather, it’s an exercise in damage limitation, taking the most points he safely can to ensure that his title hopes remain alive.
We’ve seem similar heroic rides in the past, where racers have been forced to grit their teeth and grind their bones to try to score points. Some of these stories have become part of MotoGP folklore, told repeatedly as brave tales of what racers are capable of when their backs are up against the wall.
However, despite the fairytale endings that they deliver, you really have to question whether the decisions are the right ones to make.
It’s hard to blame the riders for their desire to be on track. They’re paid to race motorbikes and they love doing it, so it makes sense that they want to be back at it as soon as possible, even if that means shedding blood, sweat and tears along the way.
With many of them barely out of their teens and under intense pressure and scrutiny, that doesn’t mean that the desire to ride should be left in their own hands. Surrounded by vastly more experienced managers and team bosses, riders should have a support network that knows when to say ‘enough is enough’ and step in to save the rider from themselves.
And that’s where the system can fail them. Instead of being the reliever of pressure, team bosses can be the source of it, pressuring riders into lining up on the grid when they really shouldn’t be there.
Even when the pressure isn’t overt, it’s nonetheless constant and riders can end up feeling they need to do everything from lying to medical staff to risking life-changing injury.
I’m obviously not saying that Marc Marquez is doing anything of the sort this weekend. MotoGP’s doctors know the full extent of his injury – they’re the ones who cut him open to fix it on Tuesday.
But Marquez riding so soon after a major injury sets a worrying precedent for those younger riders out to prove something and who may be under pressure from team management to race, even fighting for their future. You can just imagine being a fly on the wall, ‘If you want to be a future champion like Marc, you have to do as he does and race’.
There’s no questioning the amount of pressure on the eight-time champion’s shoulders this year, especially given the emergence of top-talent Fabio Quartararo at Petronas Yamaha. Single-handedly carrying Honda’s title aspirations as the only racer able to consistently perform on their wild bike, Marquez knows what is expected of him.
And in my opinion, that’s wrong. It’s only four days since he sustained an injury that could have cost him the use of his arm never mind a few missed races, and since then he’s undergone major surgery and had a chunk of metal bolted right next to those same all-important nerves.
Some things in life are more important than racing motorbikes, and no-one would look down on Marc for sitting out a few races to make sure that both his arm and his long-term health are secure…
