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When your brother is called Marc Marquez it is inevitable that some doors are easier to open. Questions of marketing, sponsors and also a DNA that speaks for itself. We are obviously talking about Alex Marquez, someone who throughout his sporting career has had the honour and burden of having to demonstrate that he is not just 'the brother of', a fate shared among other things with Luca Marini.
However, compared to Luca, Alex has written a few more pages of his career, he has won two world championships, he has won two Sprint Races in MotoGP and he has demonstrated that the first disappointing seasons on the Honda were due more to a complicated bike than to a lack of attitude. Precisely in 2020 Alex arrived in MotoGP as the reigning Moto2 champion, to find himself in the most coveted team in the paddock at the time, namely Honda HRC which at the time was totally at the feet of Marc Marquez, the aforementioned brother.
Marc had won on his debut in MotoGP in 2013, and then repeated it in a peremptory manner the following year. Following Yamaha’s victory with Lorenzo in 2015, Marc also triumphed from 2016 to 2019 and in Alex's debut year in 2020 he was destined to continue that triumphal streak. Then came Jerez and the start of a journey into injury hell that left the eldest of the brothers at home at the mercy of operations and recoveries worthy of a great thriller. Alex therefore found himself alone in HRC as a rookie, with the awareness among other things that he was immediately destined for the LCR team from 2021, even before the first GP of the 2020 season took place. If this is not a premature rejection, we really have difficulty identifying one.
However, Alex was not discouraged, he worked hard to improve and especially in the wet he demonstrated that he had talent. He struggled with the burden of his last name, because for years most media outlets bombarded him with more questions about his brother than his races. In 2023 the opportunity arrived with Gresini and he seized it immediately, getting on the champion bike and demonstrating his true value for the first time. He grew up, he scored poles, then victories (OK one on Saturday, but still a victory). He found the right climate to express himself and without having the burden of sharing the garage or even a similar bike with Marc, he exploded.
But now everything will change, because in 2024 his brother will return to share the garage and motorbike with Alex, undoubtedly stealing the show. There is little to comment on, everyone's attention will be on the eight-time champion called to return among the greats as an outsider, with an unofficial motorbike. A scenario that seems to outline the contours of a potentially wonderful season for the entire paddock, but also a significant litmus test for Alex, called against his will to a new confrontation on equal terms with his cumbersome brother.
However, things have changed considerably since that unfortunate 2020. The bike is not the difficult animal to tame that the 2020 RCV was, Alex now has four seasons under his belt in MotoGP and the right experience to chart his own path without having to think too much about who shares the garage with him. A complex challenge for sure, but probably healthier than that of his debut season in MotoGP. From a certain point of view, 2024 will be the year of truth for Alex, because few think that he can fight on equal terms with Marc for the entire season, but many are convinced that things are destined to go very differently compared to that now distant 2020.
Alex is no longer just Marc's brother. He is a complete rider, an intelligent and very humble guy, who makes hard work the recipe to be on par with the best in MotoGP. Perhaps having a phenomenon like Marc in the team will also help him find the definitive solution, because we know well what a great relationship the two Marquez have, as it was possible to realise even more in detail in the documentary All In, which showed us many aspects of the relationship between the two that were not known to everyone. Paradoxically, watching that documentary it almost seems that the older brother, the theoretically wise one capable of giving the right advice, is Alex himself, with a maturity that far exceeds his chronological age.
He will need all this maturity, all his attitude to work, in order not to lose his bearings under the influence of a Marc who will undoubtedly be hungry from the beginning to the end of 2024. We are certain that Alex can be a surprise and that he can demonstrate it in what promises to be a complex season, having to fight in a team with the brother who is much loved, but who will always be the first rival.
