How will Marc Marquez do in 2024?

#22 said:

Don't forget the Honda (and argulably Marc) ended Jorge Lorenzo's career.

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I bet Marc would sneak into Jorges garage in the middle of the night to sabotage his bike. Marc and Puig would go in there and put grease on his tires and skittles in his gas tank.

DavidSim said:

I read a while back that the trick was to go through the corners with the engine at high revs, apparently he was the only one with the balls to do it repeatedly (and the rest is history).

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From a magazine test of Doohan's bike years later (with Doohan in attendance).

"Open the throttle anything more than halfway over 7000 rpm, however, and you'd better know where you're going—you'll be there more quickly than you ever thought possible. Mick Doohan says he keeps the revs high so the slides remain controllable.".

I'm sure the livery will be considerably diofferent next season with the likelyhood of Marc bringing new sponsors, but it is nice to see some mockups. Here ya go BirdBird!

There is some bloke called Michael Doohan? Dunno who he is, because he obviously doesn't know what he's talking about.

Doohan expects Marquez to be competitive next season on a Ducati: “For me, he’s still the most talented.

“He’s right there with the best of them on the grid. He just hasn’t had the bike to show his talent.

“I have no doubt he will perform well on any bike. If there isn’t a big step between the ‘23 bike and the ‘24 bike, he will be competitive.”

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Casey Stoner’s theory that Marc Marquez will avoid a “step behind” Ducati

What the .... do 2 Aussies know right? We should be listening to that ONE TRICK PONY BirdBird...

(Satire in case you miss it. 2 Aussies with 7 world titles both say that not only Marc will be quick, but that as has been said on here, he will have the advantage of a known and sorted bike at the start of 2024.)

#22 said:

I'm sure the livery will be considerably diofferent next season with the likelyhood of Marc bringing new sponsors, but it is nice to see some mockups. Here ya go BirdBird!

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Actually, I really hope they do a better job on the livery. It's pretty damned dull at present. Most of the current Ducati livery is less than striking. Most of Ducati's occasional one-off liveries have been really smashing. Same for Yamaha. The Repsol bikes always look great. It's a really eye-catching color combo. I used to have tons of super-high-glossy Japanese motorcycle magazines with photos of bikes for sale only-in-Japan and they were consistently sexier than what was on offer in the States. Also, the livery of the privateer teams in the Japanese Superbike and F2 series were amazing to look at. Truly bike porn.

Birdbird said:

Marc Marquez is so concerned about his One Trick Pony skill set that he had to call up his old mate Pedrosa to ask him if his ONE TRICK PONY ability will allow him to ride a different bike..
What a funny joke, a lucky 8 time champion need to ask for advise from a retired rider, that alone speaks a thousand words about this 8 time Champion's talent, or rather lack of talent.

Pedrosa is different, he can adapt to a different bike.

Even Pedrosa refused to give a clueless One Trick Pony advice.

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Pretty good "trick" that one "trick" is then. It allowed him to beat multiple champions multiple times.
I've been watching motorcycle racing a long time and yet to see anyone else with as good a "trick" on the front end of a motorcycle

#22 said:

Funny how Doohan admits to basically picking a bike specification he knew others couldn't ride and is applauded for it. Yet when Marc admitted to doing similar, he is criticised.

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I don’t think MM deliberately made the bike more difficult for others, my impression is that the bike became more difficult without the bespoke software, and Honda relied on the software between MM’s ears to tame it, pretty much making it as fast as possible with little regard to rideability, probably largely at his behest though. As he said all through the injury saga he was unable to use his normal trick or tricks because he was physically hampered. The other bikes would now appear to have moved on while Honda still seem to have an engine with the same flaws and to have not really fully engaged with the trend to aero etc. Most on here have better technical knowledge than I do, but as I understand it Ducati do have an intrinsic engine advantage to some degree in a fuel economy formula with the desmo valves, which is in no way unfair given this technology has always been available on their street bikes. The Ducati was considered difficult to ride probably due to engine characteristics for more than a few years before Gigi got on board, but he seemed to fix that aspect, with some help from concessions, and I guess as has been said in previous discussions Honda should have been able to do something similar. Gigi has since led the stupid aero/ride height etc thing and made the bike back into into a more knife edge device with the added negative of reducing rider influence.

So birdbird may be right in one thing, MM will need to adapt his riding style, and unfortunately the miraculous front end saves are probably gone given the characteristics of the aero bikes and how they have to be ridden, which to me is an indictment of Gigi’s technological “advances” rather than MM’s riding style. That particular trick was down to pure physical riding talent and a key element of close to the most spectacular riding style ever seen in gp bike racing (I still rate Stoner’s riding style but admit to being a Stoner tragic) and was something to be acclaimed rather than derided, only imo of course.

His main trick however is being ridiculously fast on any bike including the 125 and moto2 bikes he rode to titles, and on a bike which is fast for pretty much all and sundry Ducati riders including his brother I have a strange feeling he will be fast. If in with a chance for the title he will also be relentless which none of the current Ducati riders however fast are.

michaelm said:

unfortunately the miraculous front end saves are probably gone given the characteristics of the aero bikes and how they have to be ridden, which to me is an indictment of Gigi’s technological “advances” rather than MM’s riding style. That particular trick was down to pure physical riding talent and a key element of close to the most spectacular riding style ever seen in gp bike racing (I still rate Stoner’s riding style but admit to being a Stoner tragic) and was something to be acclaimed rather than derided, only imo of course.

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Yeah not to be seen to anywhere the same extent. Yep the aero and ride height plus different tyre construction has almost eliminated it even for Marquez.

Might as well watch it again though because fk it was amazing stuff!



and this one in testing. wtf!


click watch on YouTube and it'll show.

#22 said:

I'm sure the livery will be considerably diofferent next season with the likelyhood of Marc bringing new sponsors, but it is nice to see some mockups. Here ya go BirdBird!

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Marc Marquez will scare away any potential new sponsors. No sponsors will want to see their bike on the gravel traps for more than half of the time, bad publicity and bad omen for the sponsor.

Any new livery on the Ducati that looks good like will immediately look awkward and ugly the moment they put both Marquez brothers together with helmets off for photo shoots...
Those Marquez DNA grinning face don't go well with any livery of any bike in photos.

Just having one grinning Marquez face (Alex) in pre season Gresini team helmets off photo shoot is already bad enough.
Can you imagine seeing two grinning Marquez face in the pre- season "helmets off" photo shoot for the team?
It's like a nightmare.

Those grinning Marquez face will scare away any new potential sponsors.

warthog1 said:

Marc Marquez will scare away any potential new sponsors. No sponsors will want to see their bike on the gravel traps for more than half of the time, bad publicity and bad omen for the sponsor.

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Birdbird said:

Any new livery on the Ducati that looks good like will immediately look awkward and ugly the moment they put both Marquez brothers together with helmets off for photo shoots...
Those Marquez DNA grinning face don't go well with any livery of any bike in photos.

Just having one grinning Marquez face (Alex) in pre season Gresini team helmets off photo shoot is already bad enough.
Can you imagine seeing two grinning Marquez face in the pre- season "helmets off" photo shoot for the team?
It's like a nightmare.

Those grinning Marquez face will scare away any new potential sponsors.

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Yes all sponsors hate him apart from Red Bull and Repsol, the two who really matter..

warthog1 said:

Yeah not to be seen to anywhere the same extent. Yep the aero and ride height plus different tyre construction has almost eliminated it even for Marquez.

Might as well watch it again though because fk it was amazing stuff!



click watch on YouTube and it'll show.

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Tyres obviously have a huge effect as we have seen at several recent rounds, which looks likely to be repeated this weekend with the hard carcass construction mixing up the field. As with other equalisation measures, some bikes are more equal than others on certain tyres.

Birdbird said:

Marc Marquez will scare away any potential new sponsors. No sponsors will want to see their bike on the gravel traps for more than half of the time, bad publicity and bad omen for the sponsor.

Any new livery on the Ducati that looks good like will immediately look awkward and ugly the moment they put both Marquez brothers together with helmets off for photo shoots...
Those Marquez DNA grinning face don't go well with any livery of any bike in photos.

Just having one grinning Marquez face (Alex) in pre season Gresini team helmets off photo shoot is already bad enough.
Can you imagine seeing two grinning Marquez face in the pre- season "helmets off" photo shoot for the team?
It's like a nightmare.

Those grinning Marquez face will scare away any new potential sponsors.

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Yea the highest paid most sponsored rider in gp isn't going to get any sponsors. I am extremely impressed with how every single opinion you have can be 100% wrong and stupid. "Those grinning Marquez face will scare away any new potential sponsors." What the .... does that even mean? I see it now a board meeting from a billion dollar company. Well we were going to sponsor the Marquez brothers but they are always smiling. Why can't they crash a car while drunk driving or at least cry every now and then. Do you even understand how marketing works? Even your hatred for the Marquez bros brings attention to them. So keep it up birdboy.

mikesbytes said:

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No offense, but every time someone someone can't resist making themself feel superior to Birdbrain by explaining why he's wrong, Birdbrain chalks another X on the wall to celebrate his capacity to get attention.

Little Walter said:

No offense, but every time someone someone can't resist making themself feel superior to Birdbrain by explaining why he's wrong, Birdbrain chalks another X on the wall to celebrate his capacity to get attention.

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I am enjoying it. I don't care how it makes him feel because together we can all laugh at him. We keep feeding him he keeps saying something dumber.

MdubSTYLIE said:

Yea the highest paid most sponsored rider in gp isn't going to get any sponsors. I am extremely impressed with how every single opinion you have can be 100% wrong and stupid. "Those grinning Marquez face will scare away any new potential sponsors." What the .... does that even mean? I see it now a board meeting from a billion dollar company. Well we were going to sponsor the Marquez brothers but they are always smiling. Why can't they crash a car while drunk driving or at least cry every now and then. Do you even understand how marketing works? Even your hatred for the Marquez bros brings attention to them. So keep it up birdboy.

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One of the reasons I admire MM is the fact that he smiles! He smiles when he wins and smiles when he loses. He even smiles through adversity, evidenced when he came back from a career threatening horrific arm injury but he always remained positive and smiling when the cameras were on him. He‘s been getting unjustified in my opinion stick from certain people for grabbing a tow in qualifying but to me that just shows his amazing mentality and complete lack of ego. Some riders wouldn’t deign to look for a tow but MM, an 8 time world champion, is quite willing to seek a lawful advantage if he feels it can help him improve his position. He alluded to the fact that he’s prepared to go back to basics in the interview on his move to Gresini and this is just going back to his roots and doing what he learned in the junior classes?
i believe he’s just made the hardest decision of his career to leave Honda but I’m confident we will have to call him by an old name next year….ALIEN.

Faz said:

One of the reasons I admire MM is the fact that he smiles! He smiles when he wins and smiles when he loses. He even smiles through adversity, evidenced when he came back from a career threatening horrific arm injury but he always remained positive and smiling when the cameras were on him. He‘s been getting unjustified in my opinion stick from certain people for grabbing a tow in qualifying but to me that just shows his amazing mentality and complete lack of ego. Some riders wouldn’t deign to look for a tow but MM, an 8 time world champion, is quite willing to seek a lawful advantage if he feels it can help him improve his position. He alluded to the fact that he’s prepared to go back to basics in the interview on his move to Gresini and this is just going back to his roots and doing what he learned in the junior classes?
i believe he’s just made the hardest decision of his career to leave Honda but I’m confident we will have to call him by an old name next year….ALIEN.

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Completely agree. He has remained 100% true to himself through everything he has been through. From the early days of being called murder marc, the rossi mind games, to the most recent adversity he has never stopped being Marc. That is not an easy thing to do in racing.

Faz said:

One of the reasons I admire MM is the fact that he smiles! He smiles when he wins and smiles when he loses. He even smiles through adversity, evidenced when he came back from a career threatening horrific arm injury but he always remained positive and smiling when the cameras were on him. He‘s been getting unjustified in my opinion stick from certain people for grabbing a tow in qualifying but to me that just shows his amazing mentality and complete lack of ego.

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I never had an issue with that. It's a competition, not just during the race itself. Riders alway take advantage of other rider's errors or misfortunes such as they are. No-one has an issue with a rider taking advantage of the draft when making a pass, so why bitch and moan when they do it in quali?

michaelm said:

Yes all sponsors hate him apart from Red Bull and Repsol, the two who really matter..

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And Tissot, and Estrelia Galicia, and BMW.

#22 said:

And Tissot, and Estrelia Galicia, and BMW.

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Alpinestar, Shoei, and birdbirds mom.