The youngest of the Márquez brothers, Álex, is the one with more experience on the bike and will have the company inside of box of Marc. There is a ‘healthy rivalry’, he assured, with the #73 to want to start the season slowly and then built his results up. Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martín are the riders to be looking at, despite getting to compare himself with his brother.
This will be the second season with Gresini Racing, now with the company of Marc Márquez, with the youngest of the brothers to say he is excited to shared the garage with his… rival: ‘You have to take things as a joke and even more so when it’s your brother. There’s a healthy rivalry. I arrive prepared and with a lot of enthusiasm, very positive. Then during a 21-race season there will be problems and there will be better and worse moments. But to start well is a big step. So we are ready, I feel very good every day being competitive and above all having the bike much more in my hand. Last year I was going a bit with the flow, so to speak. So I’m looking forward to it and it’s going to be a special weekend, the first race with Marc and for the whole team’.
As for his goals, Álex doesn’t want to be in a rush: ‘I prefer to start with a low profile, with realistic objectives. Not to start here at the top and then fall. I think things start from the bottom. It’s such a long season, we’ve seen champions in the summer and then in November they didn’t even make the top three. So we have to stay calm until we get to Europe and four or five races later we won’t see the reality or who is there, which I think will be the same as last year. From there we will see where we are and where we can achieve’.
Still, he got to compare himself with Marc, while looking at the first and second in last years’ championship, who are the benchmark:
– It doesn’t give you much time during a test to compare or to look at someone else to see how they are doing. It’s true that Marc has a lot of strong points and I have learnt a lot this preseason. It’s true that he showed a bit of his real speed on the last day of testing. More than helping him I have tried to compare myself with him to see where he was doing better so that I could improve, that’s where we have to make the most of it. In the end last year I ended up comparing myself with Pecco and Martin and this year I’m going to start the same way and whoever is fast will be able to improve.