Unseen ally of Marc Marquez singled out for his crucial help

An important member of Marc Marquez’s inner-circle has been praised for the “continuity” he has provided inside the garage.

Marquez has changed teams twice in the past two years, from Honda to Gresini to the factory Ducati team, and is now surrounded by a group unrecognisable from his title-winning heyday.

Even his crew chief changed again this year, because he linked up with Marco Rigamonti with Frankie Carchedi staying at Gresini.

“He did bring one person with him,” TNT Sports’ Michael Laverty told Crash.net.

“Mattia Sereni, who is his electronics engineer. Sometimes, the engineer gets very little credit.

“But that person in the back writes all the strategies for how he likes his corner entry, how he likes his anti-wheelie, his traction.

“He’s brought him across, so that gives some continuity for him, but he is very adaptable and very versatile.”

Marquez tops the MotoGP standings despite some errors creeping into his grand prix performance.

But he has tackled the tricky GP25 far better than his teammate Pecco Bagnaia.

Marquez’s ability to calmly and efficiently change garages and bikes has been praised.

“When we saw him in action on the grid in Texas, whenever it came to that five-minute window of strategy, he’s so in control of his crew as well,” Laverty said.

“He’s almost like the conductor, he controls his garage as much as anyone.”

Neil Hodgson added: “It just underlines his talent. New team, new crew chief, new bike – it’s quite a bit different.

“And he’s the best. He’s gone into Pecco’s team, Pecco’s garage; Pecco’s got the same crew chief he’s had for years, it’s an evolution of the 2024 bike. It’s incredible.”

Marc Marquez 'makes the difference'

Marquez returning to his best after jumping on the best bike in MotoGP is no surprise, though.

“I think, personally, deep down, I thought Marc was going to dominate this year,” Hodgson said.

“I think we all felt that, deep down, we thought that if Marc clicks with the bike, we know his ability, and basically that is what’s happened.

“He’s got really confident on the bike and obviously had incredible success. I’d by lying if I said I was shocked that Marc’s dominating this year.”

Laverty added: “I was hesitant to say it, because I was the same last year – ‘He’ll get on a Ducati and he’ll smoke them.’

“It didn’t quite happen with the GP23 but now he’s got [the factory bike], he’s got the proper tools and we all know how good he is.

“So, he’s finally able to have the best bike on the grid – his teammate says it’s not, but he’s got easily an equivalent bike of the top runners and then he makes the difference.”

Marquez is 24 points clear of his brother Alex Marquez at the summit of the championship.

Teammate Bagnaia trails him by 72 points.

Marquez’s excellence has contributed to the difficulty of his teammate Bagnaia, it has been claimed.

“If Enea Bastianini was still there, Pecco would be really comfortable, he’d be the number one in the team,” Hodgson said.

“The problem is every time he looks at the times he’s a couple of tenths, or three tenths, or sometimes four tenths behind Marc.

“That obviously stresses you out, he’ll look at Marc’s data, but he obviously can’t do whatever Marc’s doing.”

Laverty added: “It’s a hard one, isn’t it, whenever you’ve got a teammate that can do something on the bike that you can’t.

“I think anyone alongside Marc would struggle in that scenario: we’ve seen it with Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa – anyone who went into the garage alongside him, even his brother last year was a shadow of [his 2025 self].”