The king is back
Mat Oxley is convinced Marquez will be back any day – but will he be the same?
After a year on the sidelines Marc Marquez is set to be back on the grid and his rivals should be worried
Marc Marquez hasn’t seen a chequered flag since November 2019, which is one reason his comeback is the most anticipated in MotoGP history. There are other reasons, of course. Before last July’s accident which broke his right arm, noone had dominated MotoGP like Marquez (six titles in seven years) since Giacomo Agostini completed a run of seven straight 500cc titles in the early 1970s. Marquez’s absence from last year’s championship turned the racing on its head, with nine different riders winning races, simply because he wasn’t around to beat them. Marquez’s average points score during his astonishing 2019 season was 22 points per race, with 12 wins from 19 starts. Last year Joan Mir won the title on an average of 12 points, with one win from 14 starts. This is what makes Marquez’s return so intriguing. It’s not so much a case of will he be 100% fit when he climbs aboard his RC213V for the first time in eight months, but will he be able to win the championship despite his arm, which won’t be back to full strength for a while. After all, if we take last year’s series as a guide he could score nine fewer points at every race than he did in 2019 and still be 2021 MotoGP champion! Marquez and his surgeons know they made mistakes last year – trying to return too quickly and not looking after the injury properly. However, although he now insists he’s waiting until the arm is strong enough to ride, the bone definitely won’t be at 100% when he races again. But that’s just the norm in bikesport. Massive upper-body strength has been a big part of Marquez’s success, because that’s what you need to get the most out of a twitchy V4 like the RC213V. That’s why he’s been pumping iron in the gym, then step by step getting his body back into racing mode. Ten days ago he rode a minibike around a kart track near his Spanish home, then three days later he rode a slick-equipped RC213V-S road bike around the Barcelona circuit and last Friday he rode the bike again at Portimao. He looked good on the RC213V-S – elbows on the asphalt through the turns – although his right arm wasn’t quite in the usual position. The 28-year-old’s biggest challenge during his first outings on his RC213V MotoGP bike will be heavy braking.
Of course, his return isn’t only a physical issue. Five-times 500cc world champion Mick Doohan once said that “Motorcycle racing is 90% mental,” so will Marquez’s psyche have been affected by what turned out to be a nasty injury? Will he want to take fewer risks than before? Because his whole modus operandum has been to push beyond the limit and go where most of his rivals fear to go. His Repsol Honda team boss Alberto Puig doesn’t think so. “I think Marc’s mentality will be the same because this guy doesn’t change his mentality,” says the former 500 GP winner. “He will have more experience from what has happened and I’m sure that he will grow stronger out of this.” Marquez has the same mental strength that Doohan had to overcome obstacles that would be impassable for normal mortals. The longest layoff Doohan suffered during his remarkable comeback from a mangled leg was six months before the 1994 season, when he won the first of his five consecutive world titles. There could be issues, of course. Marquez likes to find the edge by going over it in practice but he may not be so keen to do that until the fracture site in his right humerus is fully consolidated. So don’t expect an immediately victorious return, but don’t rule it out! In other words, anything is possible, because there’s never been a rider like Marquez who squirms the front tyre at every other corner and goes all-in every race, no matter the odds.
Of one thing there is absolutely no doubt: Mir and the rest of the grid are all wondering what’s going to happen when Marquez lines up alongside them on the grid. Last year the cat was away so the mice could play. Not anymore…