Marc Marquez: “Alex has more chance to win Qatar than me”

While Marc is moving across to Ducati after 11 seasons at Honda, Alex will be starting his second year on a Desmosedici after celebrating two Sprint wins, two GP podiums and a pole in 2023.

“The first race is Qatar, where I think Alex has more chance than me,” insisted Marc, a 59 time premer-class winner for Repsol Honda between 2013-2021. “I won only two times. I’m not in the mindset to think about victory now but we’ll see. If it’s a win for Gresini we will be happy.”

“If I win Qatar? That sounds good to me!” smiled Alex, who finished a best yet ninth overall in last year’s MotoGP standings but hasn’t won a grand prix since his 2019 Moto2 world championship season.

“He doesn’t have to be hasty, it will come. You have to be realistic,” warned Marc.

“I’ve always said, you can’t finish the championship in tenth and start the next one thinking you will win it. It doesn’t happen.

“If you are tenth you have to start thinking you can get top 7 or top 5. Little by little, you scale it up. A sporting person can’t make such a big change from one year to another. It’s continuous progress.

“The most important thing for Alex is, don’t put high expectations because I’m in the box. He needs to be realistic all the time.”

Alex acknowledged that his brother’s past success and huge fanbase will increase pressure on the whole team.

“The dark side [of Marc’s arrival] is the expectations, of the people and team. We were really calm last year.”

Gresini tasted victory in the last (2021) Qatar season opener, with former rider Enea Bastianini.