‘I’m rebuilding my future’ - Marc Marquez plays down MotoGP title aims

Marc Marquez says he is returning for the Italian Grand Prix to “rebuild my future” and believes aiming for the MotoGP title now will leave him “injured again”.

The seven-time world champion missed the Catalan Grand Prix following surgery on a pre-existing right shoulder injury, after damaged metal work from his crash in Indonesia last year was touching his radial nerve.

Marc Marquez returns for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, 85 points down on championship leader Marco Bezzecchi, after the factory Aprilias endured a mixed weekend at Catalunya.

But he says he has not returned for this weekend’s Mugello round with ambitions of reviving his 2026 MotoGP title hopes.

“If I come back with the mentality that I can win this championship, I will be injured again,” he told the official MotoGP website.

“So, now is not the correct one: now I’m in the mentality to rebuild my future, because, riding like how I did in the first races, I wasn’t able to continue.

“So, let’s see that if in the next races I can rebuild my right arm, and from that point I know the speed will arrive.

“But, first of all, I need to feel well about my physical condition.”

“The feeling is acceptable”

As well as recovering from shoulder surgery, Marquez also had an operation on a broken foot he suffered on Saturday at the French Grand Prix.

He says the latter is “peanuts” and would have been fine to race with at Barcelona had he not been struggling with his shoulder.

“The feeling is acceptable,” he said.

“For that reason, I’m here, because we analysed the situation with my doctors, and of course with myself and the physios, and we understand that now the correct step is quite close from the surgery, but we just need time.

“We need time and this time, we can spend on the bike. It’s true that you need to approach the weekend with the correct mentality, just trying to improve session by session.

“But I will say it’s a weekend that follows onto another weekend, so trying to do those steps in a solid way, because when you have a nerve that was damaged - now it’s not - it takes time to come back to a normal situation.

“I will try to work, to insist, to persist, to try to understand if I can reach an acceptable level to fight with the top guys in the next races.

“The foot is peanuts… the foot, nothing, I was ready to race in Catalunya.

“It’s more the shoulder was my biggest limitation these last months.

“I was working super hard, and in 2025, I was able to ride well.

“But that Indonesia crash hit the right shoulder again that was my weak point, and now we took out some of the material from inside.

“Let’s see. I don’t know, the doctors don’t know, nobody knows what will go on in the future.

“But I know I will try, and if I need to try I need to be on the bike.

“The easiest way will be to stay at home and be here in three, four races, but I’m not afraid about trying to approach the situation in a good way, but always trying to improve as quick as possible.”