Marc Márquez’s Difficult Childhood: "No Disneyland, Only Motorcycles

Today Marc Marquez is the biggest star of the MotoGP World Championship. The path that led him to become a nine-time world champion was not always downhill; he had to face steep climbs, both at the beginning and in more recent years. The Cervera ace tells his story in an interview on Automoto’s French YouTube channel, hosted by Bader Benlekehal.

The reigning MotoGP champion recalls his first encounter with two wheels at the age of four. “My birthday is in February and I received my first three-gear bike for Christmas,” Marc Marquez remembered. “It was a Yamaha Peewee. At the time, it was the only bike that existed. And we started doing motocross with my father. They told me that for Christmas I always asked: ‘I just want a bike, but a real bike, not an electric one. I want a bike with an engine.’”

At almost five years old, a few months ahead of the rules, he ran his first race. Initially he was very drawn to motocross, but once he tried the asphalt of a track at the age of eight, it was love at first sight. At nine, he signed his first contract with a team, “for my family everything was free. The biggest support to keep growing.”

The first crashes, the first tough moments, weekends spent in a small caravan. “At home there were no holidays, only racing,” Marc Marquez emphasized. Not forgetting that his parents made sacrifices for his brother Alex as well. “Instead of spending money to go on vacation, we used it to ride bikes... My father told me: ‘If you want to ride, we can’t go to Disneyland. You have to choose. If you want to ride, you can’t do other things.’”

The efforts and teachings of his father Julià helped make him the champion he is today, not only in terms of results. A kind person off the track, but a true killer when he lowers the visor and it’s time to earn a MotoGP podium. “I try to be respectful with everyone, but on track you can’t be ‘nice’ to your rivals. It’s competition. You always try to be fair, but at the limit, because that’s what competition is for: to win. On track I push to the limit to win, to attack when I can. But when I stop racing, I’m a normal person.”

His brother Alex has always been by his side, on and off the track. For a few short stretches he even gave him a run for his money. “I defend my colors, Ducati Lenovo, and he defends Gresini’s. But we have no secrets. We train together, we live together. Last year, for example, was our best year: first and second in the championship. We trained together, same diet, same supplements, everything the same. But on track, each one has his own team... It’s like in football: Barça and Real Madrid face off, but then they’re teammates on the national team. Something similar happens in MotoGP.”

Being a champion also requires sacrifices in your private life. “You have to think 24 hours a day about how to improve. You don’t train all day, but you take care of your diet, your rest, your preparation...” In this sense, he also recognizes the importance of switching off at the right time. “It’s important. You can’t think about bikes all year long. In the summer I have a week or a week and a half of vacation. And in the winter two or two and a half weeks. During races I’m very intense. On vacation I’m relaxed. I don’t like schedules; I hate them. I have schedules on track, on race weekends. But on vacation I don’t want rigid planning.”

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