Marc Marquez says he “doesn’t care a lot” about the number of times he has crashed in MotoGP this year, but is keen on cutting down on errors in races.
The Gresini rider suffered 16 falls in the opening 11 rounds of the season, putting him on top on the list of riders with most crashes in 2024.
The six-time champion has always had a reputation of crashing too often in the premier class, although many put that down to the characteristics of the complicated Honda bike during his 11-year stint with the Japanese manufacturer.
Having switched to a Ducati GP23 that is much easier and friendlier to ride, Marquez still has not been able to put an end to the trend - and is on course to equal or even surpass the record of 23 crashes he set in 2023.
Marquez’s most famous shunt of 2024 came shortly after taking the lead of the Americas GP, while more recently he dropped his bike in Silverstone and Spielberg sprint races.
Asked if his crashes this year are down to riding style or the adaptation process with the Desmosedici, Marquez said: “It’s true that in the first part of the season, as I said in Portimao and Austin, I crashed a lot.
“And it was not my mistake, but it’s true that these last races I had a couple of crashes that I didn’t understand a lot and these all gave me a little bit less confidence. But we now need to try again to find the limit in the correct way.
“The most positive thing is that I’m crashing in practice. It’s true that in the races I crashed in the Silverstone sprint [and then the Spielberg sprint].
“But normally in the main race I always try to stay on the bike and this is the most important point. I would like to crash less, but at the moment it’s a number I don’t care a lot [about].”
Marquez has shown impressive speed in 2024 so far despite not having the class-leading GP24, earning himself a promotion to the factory Ducati team alongside Francesco Bagnaia.
With four podium finishes in the opening 11 rounds, he sits a comfortable fourth in the championship standings, only trailing those Ducati riders on the superior 2024-spec machinery.
However, a win continues to elude the 31-year-old, who has now gone 1000 days since his last success at Misano in 2021. The Honda package was the least competitive on the grid in 2022 and ‘23, while the leap Ducati has made this year has even made podiums difficult for anyone not on the latest-spec GP23.
Marquez however isn’t concerned about his win drought in MotoGP and insists his focus is on putting in the building blocks for his 2025 campaign, when he is expected to fight for a title again for the first time since 2019.
“For me it doesn't matter [how many days it’s been since I last won a race],” he said. “I know this year is a year to build and I'm building and building. I'm trying to build that confidence, I try to go in step by step.
“It's true we start [this year] so good. Looks like we did a step back [after that] and now it looks like we come back.
“And this second part of the season, we need to keep building, try to be on the podiums and the victory if it's not this year, next year it will arrive.”
