Marc Marquez insists Ducati riders are already playing mind games with him

When Marquez joins Gresini in 2024 he will jump on the same bike that 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Francesco Bagnaia and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Jorge Martin rode this season.
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia’s prediction was: “Next year we’ll have a very good bike, you can brake very hard which he alreadyꦆ does with the Honda.
“The engine is fast. I don’t know if he’ll fight for the championship ไbut he’ll be in the top five, for sure.”
Enea Bastianini said: “[Marc] is an incredible talent. For me, it will ꩲbe a problem from the first race!”
Pramac’s Martin said: “It’s a big challenge for us because it’s the only way🔴 to compare us to Marc, one of the greatest from history.”
But ▨Marquez has suggested 🏅that these remarks were the first psychological games.
He claimed: “It’s what I w♛ould say if so𒁏mebody moves to a good bike!
“I would put pressu♚re on him! Say he will be super-fast.
“Because I take ඣpressure off me, and put pressure on him.
“That’s what they are saying. I am 30, I have many years in MotoGP. When you have difficult moments on the race-track, you think that you’re performing in a good way♌ but the results are not coming and not arriving, the🏅n you start to have doubts.
“Especially 𝓡because, since 2020, my years have been like a nightmare.
“As an athlete, you must survive if you ꦗhave a difficult moment. You have doubts, of course, doubts in yourself.
“But these doubts? Next year I will answer if they 🐭are real doubts, or if it’s okay.
“To think I’ll go out with the bike𓆏 and win all the races? Impossible.
“But I’d be lying to you 🌸if I say: ‘No🥂, it’s okay…’
“It’s new motivation. New motivation means that you want to understand man📖y things, to feel again butterflies in your stomach to come to the circuit, that extra pressure…
“Maybe not every race, but to at least be c🐻ompetitive in the top positions in some race tracks.”
Six-time Mo𓄧toGP champion Marquez hasn’t won the title since 2019 and has endured three years ravag🔯ed by injury and a below-par bike.

James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to𓄧 football, to F1.