Sport
Sport He had hopes of returning to Jerez, but up to three medical teams advised against it because they feared that the injury would leave physical sequelae that could mean “the end of my sports career.”
Marc Márquez is back in Jerez, but he is only passing through. In fact, today, Thursday, he went through the circuit to see the members of his team and, incidentally, he gave a press conference where he offered all the explanations about his state of health, his expectations of return and also his opinion about the sanction, raised to the Court of Appeal.
Why don’t you run in Jerez?
The decision not to race in Jerez was relatively easy. I had the hope that I would recover in four weeks, I wanted to think that I would recover faster; but the bone takes what it takes, for me and for anyone else. It’s the same thing, and when I went to do the TAC on Tuesday, both the Madrid team led by Ignacio Roger de Oña, the Mayo Clinic team and the Red Bull APC team, all three unanimously said it was ‘crazy ‘ run here in Jerez. Because there was no risk of falling, simply with the pressure on the handlebars at each stop there was a high risk that the surgery would be missed. And if it jumped, that means it’s one of the points where we support the riders the most; and there could be consequences. If after what happened to the arm, if you also have sequelae on your hand… well, the decision was easy. We will try to recover as soon as possible for Le Mans.
In the races that you have been absent there have also been touches. What opinion do you deserve?
Touches are something that has happened, is happening and will happen. I hope they happen as few times as possible, but all the greats in history have had these situations, whether you have more or less experience, we are going to the limit. Nobody wants to crash with another rider, but these are things that happen in motorcycling. It is clear that you learn from all of them, and for that they penalize you. Something that would also have to be clarified a little if they want to do it for the future, because each action is different. But it is motorcycling and whoever does not understand it is that he has not seen many races in his life.
Since 2020 you have missed almost half of the grand prix, how much does it cost to keep your motivation alive?
Yes, it is true that I have been chaining injury after injury since 2020, different circumstances… Maintain motivation? For me it is better to maintain willpower, not pull motivation, pull willpower, pull routine, sacrifice, do the same every day. Logically, when they tell you that you have an injury, your motivation goes down, but that is where you have to use your willpower to maintain motivation and to return it in the future. And right now I’m pulling willpower. I don’t feel like getting up every day at 7 in the morning, being in the hyperbaric chamber for two hours, then the machines, to recover the bone, and then cardio. It is my job and my willpower asks me for this. And it is what I will continue to do until I recover and compete again because my passion asks me to.
Is returning to Le Mans already a realistic goal?
Yeah, well, Le Mans is a more realistic date. Until now, the press releases had not mentioned any grand prix because there was hope, because I think that if you face a recovery in a positive way it becomes much more enjoyable, and there was hope of returning to Jerez and this was my goal. Could not be fulfilled. But the realistic thing, the parameters or the dates that the doctors set for us, was between Le Mans and Mugello. Logically, Le Mans has already come out of the mouths of the doctors, which does not mean that it is 100 percent safe, because this will be decided by the TAC that will be done on the same Tuesday of the week of the grand prix, but we will see.
What is worse, missing the GP itself or losing the post GP test?
It is clear that missing races already hurts, missing the Spanish Grand Prix hurts more, and it also affects a lot to miss the only test we have this year, because until Misano there is no other. Yes, you lose a lot of time on the track and testing things, but Honda also has two other very good riders, who are Rins and Mir, Mir and Rins. Rins won the last race, which is also important for Honda, on a circuit where the bike has always worked well. Now it remains to be seen if they are also capable at other circuits, or we are, because in the end we are a team, if we are capable of continuing with the same dynamics and getting closer and doing things like the ones I did on Saturday in Portimao.
What is your opinion of everything that happened with your sanction and subsequent appeal?
For me this topic is secondary. My main issue is to recover, penalty-wise. I received a penalty because I made a mistake in Portimao and I accepted it, as I said at the time. What happens is that it is not very clear why it was changed after two days. Logically the team decided to appeal. I was not up for that because they had already told me that it would take between 6 and 8 weeks of recovery, and you start to make calculations and see that you will skip at least two or three races; and I was not for that. But it is true that the sanctions have to be very clear. I received the penalty to serve it in the Argentine GP, specifically written on a piece of paper. Then they changed it, very good. But for a driver the worst penalty is being injured and it is also the best way to learn. It’s based on blows, but none of us on the track want to create dangerous situations and above all get injured.
