Marc Márquez will compete in his first MotoGP Grand Prix with Gresini and Ducati’s bike next weekend in Qatar. The rider doesn’t expect to immediately contend for top results, admitting that he will have an adaptation phase, but Giulio Nava believes he could reach the top positions early on.
The current crew chief for Álvaro Bautista in the World Superbike Championship has worked with Márquez before and told GPOne.com: ‘I hope Marc is on the podium in the first races. As you know, I worked with him before the injury, and I don’t know how much it affected him. He is one of those riders who, if he sees the opportunity, doesn’t back down, but I believe he will approach this challenge with the right mindset. He doesn’t want to go from 0 to 100, but he will take one step at a time’.
The engineer has no doubt that Márquez will try to be at the top in Losail right away, but he considers that he will not exceed his limits to do so: ‘He will try to be there immediately, that’s obvious. If he finishes fifth in the first race, he will try to finish fourth in the next race, and then he will try to fight for the podium and try to consistently stay there. I hope he is competitive without going to 101% as he used to, but to 99%’.