Alex Marquez says he will make the most of utilising data from his team-mate and brother Marc Marquez during his debut MotoGP season as he targets top rookie status in his maiden campaign.
The reigning Moto2 World Champion steps up to the premier class in 2020 after being called up to replace the retiring Jorge Lorenzo in the title winning Repsol Honda team. The historic deal will see him join his brother Marc, signalling the first-time brothers have competed in the same outfit.
With the change of year marking the official end of Lorenzo’s Honda contract and the start of Marquez’s one-year deal, the Spaniard – making his bow in Repsol colours – was quizzed on his expectations for the season ahead.
Expressing his pride at landing such a prestigious role, Marquez admits he will call upon his brother’s expertise to help get himself up to speed.
“It’s a special moment, a special year but we need to be natural and approach it like a normal situation,” he says. “We know we are brothers but inside the team we need to be professional, we are different riders. We each have our own teams, so we need to work in our own way.
“For sure for me it’s an advantage to have a six-time MotoGP World Champion in my garage because I can see a lot of data from him and see how I need to ride this Honda machine, to help find the secrets. So, I will try to take all the information from him and all the Honda riders to try and learn as much as possible.
“I can say that I want to be the Rookie of the Year – that’s the first goal. But to put a goal about positions or something like this, right now I am focused on understanding the bike and aiming to have more feeling to build my confidence. Before the Qatar race, I will be able to see a little better what our real position is and what we can do from the first race.”
Alex Marquez sets out his hopes for 2020 MotoGP
Marquez’s target of becoming ‘Rookie of the Year’ is something of a soft goal given he will be just one of three newcomers on the MotoGP grid in 2020, the other two being Brad Binder and Iker Lecuona on less competitive KTM machinery.
In reality, Marquez will need to be aiming for Q2 each round and striving for a top eight – or better, top six-to-podium – as well. Of course, right now it’s hard to judge because the Honda RC213V was both dominant in Marquez’s hands and a vast distance off in Jorge Lorenzo’s, so it really could go either way.
Even so, while Marquez would have guarded his data from Lorenzo, you can assume he’ll be a lot more open with Alex.
That’s not to say he’ll be giving away freebies, with both riders stressing they will work independently within their own team set-ups, but in terms of harmony and a unified forward direction, a double Marquez team is probably as positive as it can get for Honda.
