Toni Elías returned to MotoGP this season where he will work with Marc Márquez at Gresini Racing, and more. For the former rider, now a coach for riders in the Italian team, Márquez is ‘far superior to the others’, with many reasons for them not to be pleased since the former world champion will be ‘at the front’ and fighting for the championship if everything goes well.
In statements to Relevo and quoted in Motosan, Elías addressed the ‘superior’ quality of #93 compared to the other riders on the grid, and how after many years with Honda he managed to be super competitive immediately, which certainly sent a very clear message to the others:
– He is a rider that I think is far superior to the rest, who managed to bring a Honda that was one and a half seconds [off the pace] to just half a second. And if now, in the pre-season, he is only three tenths of a second behind, if I were a rival, I would be scared shitless. That’s my opinion. Of course he will be at the front, of course he can win races, of course he will be in the fight, but the championship depends on many things. It could be fun.
Still, in a very competitive championship, nothing is guaranteed and there will be a lot of work to do, even going as far as recalling Jorge Martín’s race that didn’t mean the title: ‘It is very difficult to be constantly on a podium or winning races, or fighting for a championship. What Martín did last year, almost achieving it, was extraordinary, but history and statistics said it wasn’t going to happen. And it didn’t happen’.
