Alex Marquez is confirmed to be replacing Jorge Lorenzo in the HRC-run Repsol Honda 2020 MotoGP team, where he will be paired with his brother and six-time premier class World Champion Marc Marquez.
In an extraordinary few days for the new Moto2 World Champion, Alex’s MotoGP promotion came about as a result of Lorenzo’s shock decision to retire on the eve of the 2019 finale in Valencia.
Creating a scramble for his available Honda RC213V, though Johann Zarco was the original favourite for the ride, it is Marquez’s brother Alex that soon emerged as the more likely candidate, with the deal confirmed just one day before he gets to ride the bike at the post-season Valencia test.
The move sees the Marquez brothers paired up for the first time in their career and with a team that has won seven of the last nine MotoGP titles and comes on the back of a triple crown for the Spanish-Japanese set-up.
Alex Marquez had originally re-signed to defend his Moto2 world title in 2020 with Marc VDS, but his seat looks set to be assumed by the spurned Zarco, who would partner Sam Lowes.
Alex Marquez gets best possible MotoGP chance
While many will perhaps struggle to see beyond the inevitable nepotism cries that come with Alex Marquez’s appointment and ponder whether Marc did have a say on whom his team-mate would be, Alex nonetheless gives Honda a fresh, raw team member, one it has arguably lacked since his brother entered the team.
While Marc is unlikely to have begun the conversation about hiring Alex Marquez – Repsol was probably there first… - you can imagine he fully supports it, while Honda will see this as a chance to get back to the harmony displayed when Marquez was partnered by Dani Pedrosa.
In a year that has seen Repsol Honda running almost two entirely different factory teams as Lorenzo struggled for pace, the prospect of two Marquez’ working together and Marc no doubt be energised by the challenge of bringing his beloved brother into the echelons of ‘alien status’.
Whether Alex – who took five seasons to win the Moto2 but is now a two-time World Champion to go with his Moto3 crown – ultimately has the talent to go 1-2 with Marc remains to be seen, but as Fabio Quartararo has shown, throwing an impressionable rider in at the deep end can bear some swimming rewards.
