F1 race winner makes bold Marc Marquez claim: ‘He’s the Senna of MotoGP’

Formula 1 race winner Carlos Sainz has labelled seven-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez “the Ayrton Senna of MotoGP” but “we don’t realise it” yet.

Making his MotoGP debut in 2013 with the factory Honda squad, Marc Marquez won the world title at the first time of asking and would earn five more over the following six seasons.

His career, however, was derailed at the start of the 2020 season when he badly broke his right arm and had to miss the whole campaign.

The injury required three major operations that year, while a fourth was needed in 2022 to reset the humerus bone - which had rotated by over 30 degrees.

Then in 2023, uncompetitive Honda machinery pushed Marquez to the brink of considering retirement, with the Spaniard making a major move to the Gresini Ducati squad for 2024 to try rebuild his career.

Winning three times last year and earning a factory Ducati step for 2025, he has dominated the season with 11 grands prix victories on his way to a seventh world title six years on from his last.

Matching Valentino Rossi’s premier class haul and rapidly closing in on his race win record, many consider Marquez the greatest of all time.

Speaking on COPE’s El Partidazo podcast in Spain, Williams F1 driver Carlos Sainz compared Marquez to three-time F1 world champion Ayrton Senna.

“I already congratulated him, because he’s had a great year and the credit he deserves for the comeback he’s made in his career,” Sainz said.

“Marquez is the Ayrton Senna of MotoGP.

“It’s just that the way we’re experiencing it right now, we didn’t realise it.

“The day he retires, and as years go by, everyone will remember Marc Marquez as the closest thing to what Ayrton Senna is in Formula 1.”

Senna won three F1 world titles between 1988 and 1991 with McLaren. He was killed in a crash at Imola in 1994.

For many, Senna is considered the greatest F1 driver of all time alongside names such as Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton.