Five years after a career-threatening arm injury at Jerez, Marc Marquez has stormed back to the top of MotoGP — and key voices inside KTM believe this is the strongest version of him yet.
Now riding for Ducati Lenovo, Marquez has claimed seven wins from the first eight races of the 2025 season — all from pole position. His latest triumph in Qatar came after holding off a strong late challenge from Tech3 KTM rider Maverick Viñales.
“For me, this is the best Marc Marquez we’ve ever seen,” said Tech3 team principal Herve Poncharal in an exclusive interview with Crash.net. “He’s kept that raw speed, but now he’s got much more experience — not just in racing, but in life — after everything he’s been through.”
Poncharal, who once praised Marquez’s 2020 ride at Jerez as one of the greatest performances he’d ever witnessed, believes the six-time MotoGP champion has grown beyond being just a physical talent.
“It used to be said that Marc Marquez’s biggest rival was Marc Marquez,” Poncharal said. “But what we saw in round one at Buriram — when he calmly sat behind Alex [Marquez] to raise tyre pressure — showed a new, calculated version of Marc. That probably wouldn’t have happened a few years ago.”
According to Poncharal, Marquez’s resurgence isn’t just about fitness, but mental clarity and emotional balance.
“He’s found that peaceful state of mind. He’s in the right environment, on the right bike. I don’t think he’ll let that go. He knows what’s at stake.”
Even a rare slip-up, such as his crash while leading in Austin, hasn’t slowed his momentum.
“Marc is a very clever person. He learned from that mistake. A lot of people thought Qatar would be difficult for him — it’s not one of his favourite tracks — and yet look what happened. Right now, he looks almost unbeatable. Almost.”
It’s that small margin of doubt that fuels hope for Poncharal and the Tech3 KTM camp.
“With riders like Enea [Bastianini] and Maverick [Viñales], we’ll keep pushing. Maverick showed in Qatar that it’s possible to challenge Marc. So we’ll try to make it happen again.”
