Honda’s Marc Marquez has revealed that team-mate and brother Alex calls him “two, three times” a race weekend for advice while the MotoGP world champion recovers from injury at home.
Alex is embarking in his debut campaign in the premier class having secured the Moto2 world title with the Belgian Marc VDS outfit last year, but has struggled so far on the tricky RC213-V.
Marc remains at home while recovering from the broken arm he sustained late on in the Spanish Grand prix at Jerez in July, but revealed in an interview conducted by HRC that he still finds time to help his younger sibling during race weekends despite not being present at the track.
The reigning six-time premier class champion divulged that Alex sends him photos of the tyre allocation afforded to the riders so that he can guide him in the right direction, while also helping him to quash any “doubts” regarding his riding style.
Marc added though that their “rule” means he never calls Alex, instead allowing the younger Marquez to be “professional” and “work with his team.”
“I try to help Alex and on Thursday when they have the tyre allocation, he sends me the photo and I try to give some advice, maybe this tyre can be the option because last year and all these things,” said Marc.
“But then we have like a rule, he needs to work with his team, we have to be professional and he is working with his team. If he has a doubt about riding style or something like this, he calls me, but I never call him.
“He needs to call me because he is in the circuit working with his team and he has Alberto (Puig, Honda team manager) there, who also has a lot of experience, and Emilio (Alzamora, mentor).
“But of course, every day we have two, sometimes three phone calls.”
Marquez reckons that the five double-header weekends added for 2020’s Covid-19-affected schedule have been “important” for this season’s rookies owing to the lack of in-season testing, but conceded the high-frequency of back-to-back contests could have an inverse effect on development due to things happening “too fast for a rookie rider.”
“It’s a difficult season for everybody but especially for a rookie it’s difficult because you have many races in a row,” continued Marquez.
“It’s strange because when you race one time you go home then the body can understand how to improve, but now everything is happening really fast – too fast for a rookie rider.
“Plus we don’t have tests, they had a one-day test in Misano and normally during a season we have four or five days test that help a lot.
“Alex is in the process, one important thing for rookie riders is when they have two races in a row in the same circuit.
“This helps a lot, the most difficult thing in MotoGP is arriving at a circuit with a MotoGP bike and trying to adjust everything.
“Alex will arrive in Montmelo at the Catalunya Circuit and he will start the process again. But let’s see if he did a step.
“To do a step is just to be racing from P8 to P12, this is the first step that he needed to do and then from there it is about trying to learn, see where you can improve and then make another step.”
