Marc Marquez on almost retiring, riding for free with Gresini & more! 👀 | In Conversation With

Two years ago, I could not imagine that I would be in this fort. I'm here because I'm enjoying. The way that I'm enjoying is winning. And now we are winning a lot, so for that reason I feel relaxed, I feel with a lot of confidence. But I know, because I had experience, that from one day to the other one can change everything. I was coming from four championships in a row and you feel unbeatable, you feel like nothing can happen. The biggest mistake was coming back too early, but why did I come back? With that extra confidence I had in that moment, I feel like nothing can happen. I follow my instinct and my instinct says go to Jerez, it's what I did. My instinct today says ride the bike, it's what I did. And my instinct in Coupe 1 says stop, and it's what I did. I was at home with the injury, trying to recover. That was hard, but the hardest moment arrived when I came back on that 21. And I started riding again, and I didn't feel good. My body was strange, I was not riding well, I felt my arm in a strange way. Then we realised there was a rotation in my arm, because I insisted. I said, here is something, I feel like my arm is in one position and then it's another one. The feeling was a lot of pain all the day, and that was the hardest moment. There was no motivation to continue. I need to rebuild my body, my mental side, during this month and a half. I'm in the most difficult moment of my career. I almost fell off the bike. I was going to stop, but I didn't. All the riders are excited. When the project is ready, it will be won. But now it's not ready to win or to fight for the top ten. You have to get used to it. How close were you to retirement? It was close. It was the question, why we don't stop, and that's it. But I had something there inside that I said, why not? Why do I need to stop? I want to prove to myself. I want to answer the question, if I'm competitive. And to answer that question, I was trying to find the best bike on the grid. That was Ducati, and that was my target. I just forget the relationships, the money, the history. I say, okay, I want to just answer that question. I had good comments from my brother, that helps. And Alex helps me a lot to take the decision. I say, only one year, let's see if I'm competitive. If that year with Yersini, I was not competitive, I'm sure that my career ends. Leave Honda and ride for free for a very good team that was Yersini, but ride for free. Because just to prove to myself that I was able to be competitive, was a very big challenge where I risk a lot of things. One of the greatest comebacks in Grand Prix history is complete here in Aragon. What a moment for Marc Marquez. I revealed my confidence and the way to win again was something special. But as soon as you move to Ducati factory, I knew that I was in the perfect place to fight for the championship. I was preparing my pre-season and the season with one target, that was try to fight for the championship. But of course, the way we are fighting for the championship is something nobody can predict. Win a lot of races, winning a circuit that normally I struggle, is something unusual and difficult to repeat. What a year, what a moment it is for the Marquez family. Side by side, first and second once again at the end of a Grand Prix here. It's Marc and Alex Marquez. We are first and second in the world championship. I mean, you don't have a bigger championship with motorbike. It's unreal. Still, I don't know how we arrived on that situation. This I cannot explain. When you have that connection with your brother and you are fighting on the racetrack, can be some frictions on the relation, but go in the opposite way. It's tighter than ever. Without me, now he will lead the championship, so maybe if we come back he will not give me the advice to go to Grecini. Why I say that, you know? I can leave him there and that's it. I had the opportunity to lead the world championship in MotoGP. He already said to me this season. He was there some mornings, Monday mornings. We were there taking breakfast at home and in the first races that he finished second, he was saying to me, why I give you that advice? I was saying on the team presentation that I was the favourite one for the championship because the last four years he was super competitive. The problem is that when you start to lose confidence, you are riding stiffer than ever, then the bike is not turning because you are not playing with the body. But I believe that Peco will come back. He has the talent, he has the team. If we want the best for the project, we need both riders at the top. It has been another Mezzano masterclass from Marc. Two weeks away, surely, from closing out his seventh MotoGP World Championship. If you try, it doesn't mean that you will achieve. But it's already a success. Because if you don't try, then you don't know. When I will retire someday, I know that more than what I tried was impossible.