In 2020, Álex Márquez achieved the long-awaited promotion to MotoGP through Repsol Honda. However, he was once coveted by the former Petronas Yamaha – Yamaha’s satellite team – during the 2019 season.
The Spaniard even believed that the YZR-M1 could be a good bike for him. However, he ended up going to Honda. Razlan Razali, founder of Petronas Yamaha, explained to DAZN what went wrong:
– Yamaha said: “No member of the Márquez family can be at Yamaha.” Because of Marc [Márquez] and what happened in 2015, it became personal for them.
It is worth remembering that in the 2015 Malaysian GP there was a highly controversial race situation between Valentino Rossi – a legendary figure at Yamaha – and Marc Márquez, in which the Italian ended up being disadvantaged in the title fight.
