The first MotoGP presentation with a view to 2024 took place yesterday, and with the most striking debut for this year, that of Marc Márquez on a Ducati. And it’s precisely all this attention that Álex hopes to see during the season, partly as a minus point, although personally there are good points for him.
Asked about the performance and approach he expects to see from Marc, Álex said that his greater experience and comfort with the bike could work in his favour: ‘With the approach he’s said he’s going to adopt, I expect to be ahead of him. But not just in the phase where he’s going to adopt a calmer approach. As I said, it will be very important for me to have a team-mate like him, from whom I can learn a lot’.
He continued: ‘Especially this year, because it’s my second year on this bike and his first, so we’re going to be quite evenly matched and it will be important to take advantage of that to move up a level. Having said that, he’s very intelligent and, in a championship with 22 races, he knows how to approach it in his first year with this bike’.
As to whether having his brother as a teammate can have many positive aspects, or whether it can be less positive, Álex replied: ‘There are good things, in terms of the set-up for the races: he’s your brother and you have the confidence to ask for things, and the “dark” side of it is the expectations of the team and the people. We’re very calm in the garage and at the races but it’s equally important for the team to have that expectation from people, sponsors and all that. It will be a more difficult side but I think we can approach it, control it in a positive way’.