As Spain’s Marc Marquez took his Repsol Honda for a spin across London’s Millennium Bridge yesterday, there could be no doubt who MotoGP’s main attraction is.
Marquez has enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom since collecting his first world championship, in the 125cc class, in 2010.
The intervening years have seen him graduate to MotoGP as Moto2 champion, and he now stands on the verge of winning a third world title in a row.
Ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, the 21-year-old — the sport’s youngest ever 500cc world champion — holds a 77-point lead over team-mate and closest challenger, Dani Pedrosa.
He has won every race this season bar the last round in Brno, hinting that he could be about to embark on a period of success to rival that of Valentino Rossi or Giacomo Agostino.
Yet, the man himself remains remarkably grounded.
“Difficult to say,” he replies when asked about his career goals.
“Of course every year the target is to try to win the championship, or to try to be competitive.
“And I know — maybe I hope — that every year I will be one of the strongest guys in MotoGP and I will work for that and I will try to be there all the time fighting for the title.”
If he can keep his motivation then there is no reason why Marquez cannot eclipse the achievements of both Agostino and Rossi.
He is the only man in the MotoGP era to win the first 10 races of a season, and is just three race wins from setting a new record for victories in a single campaign.
Meanwhile, Marquez’s 2013 500cc title success made him the first rider in the history of motor bike racing to win the intermediary and premier world championships back-to-back.
But with things going so incredibly well, and having wowed a sea of well-wishers on the banks of the River Thames, can it be difficult to keep his concentration on the track? It seems not.
“At the moment it is easy to keep focus because I am only 21 and I still have all the motivation from [being] a child, who arrived in MotoGP and wanted to be the best,” he reveals.
“But it will be important for the future to keep that motivation, and for that reason it was one of the main — maybe the main — reason that I brought all my team to MotoGP because then the relationship in the box, everything, is really nice and they are motivated too.”
Continuity has certainly helped the Spaniard, but it is not only in the pit lane where stability has paid off.
Marquez first rode a motorbike at four years old, and by the time he was 11 had met Emilio Alzamora, who continues to manage his career today.
It was Alzamora who guided the youngster into regional, and then national, 125cc competitions in Catalonia and Spain before his talents began to blossom on the world stage.
All the while, the 21-year-old has enjoyed the support of his family, and when he’s not at a race weekend, Marquez still lives at home in Cervera, a small town in Catalonia, with his mum, dad and Moto3 racing brother, Alex.
His relationship with his younger sibling appears especially close and could prove key in keeping him hungry for future success.
Marquez admits that the pair are competitive “in everything”, conceding his sibling — three years his junior — beats him at PlayStation, football and tennis. Not that losing occasionally stops him dishing out advice on his brother’s burgeoning career. “I try to help him a lot,” he explains. “Especially this year, because it is an important year for him and always we train together, we make everything together and the relationship is really good with him.
“I would like to keep it [that way] for many years, even if one day we compete in the same category, I think the relationship will be the same.”
So, does Marc envisage the pair being team-mates in MotoGP?
“Why not some day?” he replies. “It would be a dream come true because for him at the moment he is in Moto3, next year he will move to Moto2 and yeah it will be nice that some day he arrives in MotoGP.” But the champion cautions: “To be my brother, he has a lot of pressure and I think he feels it.
“But, I’m Marc, he’s Alex, we are different.”
The younger Marquez’s chances of success in Moto3 are currently being blocked by championship leader, Jack Miller.
The 19-year-old Australian is in the midst of a breakthrough year in the category, that has seen him linked with a move straight into MotoGP to become a team-mate of Marc’s at Honda.
Fellow riders, such as Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, have spoken in glowing terms about Miller’s talent, however, Marquez is not convinced that the move will pay off.
Speaking as a man who has won all three category world titles, the 21-year-old believes the jump from riding a 125cc bike to one with an engine four times the size, is just too big.
“It will be interesting to see,” he says. “I think maybe for the championship, it’s better to do the steps because Moto3, then Moto2, [you have] minimum one year to adapt to the heavier bike and other things.
“But if he feels ready then why not? Honestly, personally, I don’t understand but if he’s ready we will see what happens in the future.”
Marquez’s battle with Miller, if his move to the big time does come off, is sure to keep motorbike fans enthralled next season, but that is for another day.
