Marc Marquez’s update on injured arm as 2024 MotoGP season opener looms
Will Marc Marquez be restricted by the right arm which has been operated upon four times?
Marc Marquez has delivered an update on his troublesome arm which previously threatened to retire him.
Marquez’s move from Repsol Honda to Gresini Ducati this year has sparked new optimism in the six-time MotoGP champion.
But the lingering physical issue in his arm - from a fracture suffered in Jerez four years ago - are a lingering reminder of his limitations.
"As I have always said, and I am not lying, it is an arm with four operations that requires more maintenance than the other,” he told DAZN.
“And so you have to take good care of it.
You have to pamper it, but well.
"I have been able to have a normal preseason. I have tested well at home."
Marquez was forced to consider retirement as he went through the fourth arm operation in 2022.
Although he recovered to resume his esteemed career, a 2023 blighted by a record-high quantity of crashes on his Honda did little to inspire confidence.
Switching to Ducati - last year’s dominant bike - should help to curtail the physical blows he has become accustomed to taking.
Marquez was unhurt from his first crash on a Ducati, in the final hour of preseason testing in Qatar when he was seeking the limit of his new machine.
He explained: "I was doing the long run, I did fall on lap 12, I think, but I had planned to do 20.
"When you plan it like this, you feel good physically.
"Being realistic, at the moment we are fighting fifth, sixth.
"It's very relative because then you get here to the grand prix and the tyre changes on the track, everything changes.
“But at the moment if it had been a race, we are - I think we need to see the exact papers - fourth, fifth, sixth, in the best of scenarios."
His fellow Ducati rivals remain the riders to beat when racing begins on March 8 in Qatar.
"There are still three, four riders who luckily are riding in the same factory with," Marquez said.
"I can learn from them and I must learn from them how to get the most out of it.
"There are still a few things missing. The important thing is the evaluation of the preseason is good.
“Because we have had a solid preseason, without getting nervous, respecting the times that were needed to get to know the bike.”
Last season’s title rivals Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin - who have left the GP23 to Marquez and stepped onto the developed GP24 - are expected to resume their place at the front.
