Álex Márquez’s debut season with Gresini in MotoGP in 2023 was not easy. Although he achieved podiums and even a victory in a Sprint race, he also had to face the harsh reality of moderating expectations that had risen too high.
The Spanish rider explained in a press conference this Saturday that the inconsistency he ended up with is not uncommon in the first season with a new bike and team: ‘I think the up-and-downs are a bit normal in the first year with a bike. We arrived in many tracks where I didn’t have any information, all of that. In the first year you always need to know a little bit what you need on the bike. And normally when I jump to a new bike or a new category I always need a little bit of time. There is another type of riders who get the information or the feeling on the bike easier and faster’.
After all the challenges, Márquez feels that the final phase of 2023 was very positive: ‘I think we did a really good end of season. We were there… from the injury I had in India I think we did a really good step. In Thailand we were fighting in the front group when I crashed, but later on we were quite consistent’.
On the other hand, #73 commented: ‘I think in one point of the season, after the start, the first four races… until Jerez the expectations were increasing too fast. We were faster than we expected in the beginning of the season, so the expectations were too high in one moment. In that moment came the crashes in Jerez, also in Le Mans, some bad luck in the middle. But later on, as we finish the season, also the approach that I had to the races was the correct one to try to make a good season’.