Álex Márquez: “2025 was so good that it left me very empty”

The Spanish MotoGP rider Álex Márquez (Ducati) remembers that the year 2025 “was so good” that it left him “empty”, which is why it was difficult for him to “start” in the new season of the Motorcycle World Championship, in which “everything is becoming more complicated” after a preseason that was “a little misleading”, although he already warned that 2027 will be “the real bullet that will have to be loaded well” in what he predicted as “a very nice.”

“The preseason in Malaysia was a bit misleading. I am very good at it, it is a circuit where there are very special conditions, we have already seen many years of people flying there and then not going throughout the year, it is a circuit where you have to take things with a pinch of salt,” analyzed the Catalan, who was the fastest in the February test in Sepang, in an interview with Europa Press after an event organized by his sponsor Momoven in Madrid.

The one from Cervera saw in the preseason test in Thailand that he was not “like last year.” “In the first race we saw that we were suffering, in Brazil too. Apart from suffering, it is accepting the new situation, but that was not difficult. Last year I saw that 1-2 points can give you a World Cup, a third, anything, so it was important,” he commented, after retiring in the race in Thailand and not getting on the podium either in Brazil or in the United States.

“But, analyzing, I think that at Ducati they have not taken a ‘little step’ forward as clearly as other years. Aprilia has taken it and has finished the year very well, and on top of that they have taken a ‘little step’, and that is where we are trying to work. But I have also done self-criticism and I know that with what I have right now I can do better. So it is the whole mix that the break has also come to be able to analyze everything coldly,” he added.

The premier category of motorcycling returns this weekend with the Estrella Galicia 0.0 Spanish Grand Prix at the Jerez Circuit, after a month without races due to the postponement of the Qatar GP due to the conflict in the Middle East. An obligatory ‘break’ to reflect and recover the sensations that allowed him to be runner-up in the world last year.

CLICK TO ENTER “IN ANOTHER LOOP”

“When everything comes very smoothly it is much easier, last year you didn’t even realize it, it was podium, podium, podium and you didn’t even stop to think about what you were doing. This year, at the moment, everything is becoming more of a ball, we are not as close as we would like, but not as far as it seems,” said Álex Márquez.

The 29-year-old from Cervera needs to “click with a result, a podium,” to enter “another loop, another dynamic.” “We have had three races, there are 19 left, there are many points left to distribute. We are now entering Europe, which may be something different, although I think it is not going to change much. After 5, 6, 7 races we are going to see who is there and who is not, and from there set realistic objectives,” he said.

These first three races without a podium – something that has not happened in his career since the end of 2024 – can serve as a warning, “or at least, if you are going to hit the wall, see it coming, not go with your eyes closed against the wall.”

“For me, the easy thing would be to sit here and say, ‘the World Cup starts in Jerez, what we have done so far is useless’. But no, we are 50 points behind, we have suffered, we have learned, we have been in better moments, worse moments and now in Jerez we have to keep rowing in some way, building,” he defended, although he reiterated that there are “many races left” and “everything takes many turns”, because “there are many factors that can influence.”

And this whole situation comes after a very positive 2025, due to the runner-up finish and his 12 podiums on Sundays, earning the opportunity to ride an official Ducati in 2026, although it was not easy to start the season on a motivational level. “The year 2025 left me very empty. Far exceeding the expectations that I set for myself at the beginning of the year leaves me empty. ‘What now?’ I thought. Getting started again, honestly, was difficult for me,” he revealed.

“Then you get into dynamics and everything, before each race the expectations are the same, I train at home, I do everything the same, one hundred percent, I try to improve ‘little things’. And when I close the door of my house, I am going to win, then when you get there, you see the problems you have and you set realistic expectations, but when I close the door, I know that I have done my homework at home and I am going to win,” he said.

Finally, Álex Márquez stated that “the perfect bullet for everyone” is 2027, because they do not know “what is going to happen.” “Everyone has it in their head, ‘if I adapt better, if I do things better, if I go with that bike and for whatever reason it is the best, it could be the year’. That is the real bullet. That is where it will be very interesting and I think there will be many factors that can influence or that can make a very nice year. That bullet is the one that has to be loaded well,” he concluded.