{"id":167744,"date":"2025-09-25T08:53:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T08:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/167744\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T08:53:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T08:53:15","slug":"how-gresini-pulled-off-the-rescue-operation-with-alex-marquez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/167744\/","title":{"rendered":"How Gresini pulled off the rescue operation with Alex Marquez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Marquez<\/a> was just one step away from being forced out of MotoGP in 2023, with no options left on the table, until Nadia Padovani, owner of Gresini Racing<\/a>, decided to take a gamble on him.<\/p>\n

Marquez\u2019s path through the world championship has been a rollercoaster. An explosive start crowned him Moto3 champion in just his second full season (2014). Then came the reality check of his early Moto2 years, before he finally broke through in 2019 by clinching the intermediate class title. His MotoGP run has been just as up and down – debuting with Honda in 2020, before jumping to Ducati in 2023, where just two years later he now finds himself on course to finish runner-up, right behind his brother Marc Marquez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while Alex has done his part, there\u2019s no doubt that the person most responsible for this transformation is Padovani. When no one else was willing to take the risk, she did – and saved his career. Without the wife of the late Fausto Gresini stepping in, it\u2019s very likely that the rider who races with\u00a0 #73 wouldn\u2019t even be on the MotoGP grid today.<\/p>\n

The younger Marquez’s first season in the premier class was defined by COVID and the absence of Marc in the Repsol Honda garage they shared, after his brother\u2019s brutal shoulder injury at Jerez. The weight of it all was tough to carry for Alex, who moved to satellite outfit LCR Honda in 2021. But he couldn’t match his promising debut season in which he had scored two podiums, and by mid-2022 he was facing the unthinkable: no MotoGP seat for 2023.<\/p>\n

As the summer break rolled around and the rider market went into overdrive, Marquez saw rival after rival locking down their future. He admits the uncertainty left him anxious.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in Sachsenring and I had no team for 2023. Everything was closing and I had no place in MotoGP. It wasn\u2019t just that I was worried – I had anxiety,\u201d said Alex, who has two wins and nine podiums this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had already spoken with Marc and with my parents. If nothing came up, I was going home, at least for a year. Sure, there were other championships, but I wanted to be here [MotoGP].\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Padovani\u2019s personal bet changed everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to that, I\u2019m in the position I\u2019m in now. When you join Gresini, you understand why this team works so well. Nadia is the boss, and she\u2019s involved in every decision. It\u2019s not just my team – it\u2019s my family,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"Nadia <\/p>\n

Nadia Padovani, Gresini Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz<\/p>\n

Out of respect, he vows not to listen to offers from elsewhere until Gresini puts its cards on the table for 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that if I keep performing, next year I\u2019ll have plenty of options. But I\u2019ll never talk to other teams while I\u2019m here, because of the respect they\u2019ve shown me,” he said. \u201cWhen Marc walks into a garage, it\u2019s like a tsunami\u201d<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing Marc Marquez highlights most about his younger brother, it\u2019s his mental strength – vital for someone who\u2019s spent his whole career living in the shadow of one of the greatest riders of all time.<\/p>\n

The brothers have already shared a garage twice. First in 2020 with HRC, although Marc\u2019s season-ending arm injury in Jerez cut that short, and again last year at Gresini, when Padovani pulled off yet another rescue, this time bringing in Marc after his split with Honda.<\/p>\n

Because of those experiences, Alex knows better than anyone the effect Marc has when he arrives in a garage\u2014 – something Francesco Bagnaia is now experiencing first-hand at Ducati\u2019s factory team in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re in a garage where you\u2019ve been the main man for years, and suddenly this tsunami named Marc shows up, with everything that comes with him and the pressure it generates. He\u2019s got this aura, he\u2019s a natural leader,\u201d explained Alex.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think you\u2019re already under the highest level of pressure, and then Marc arrives and it goes to another dimension. You have to be really prepared to handle that. I don\u2019t think Pecco\u2019s issue is that, though – I see him as mentally very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Marquez was just one step away from being forced out of MotoGP in 2023, with no options…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[8454,64,63,10735,110020,107978,5745,806,805,803,804,85,107979],"class_list":["post-167744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-alex-marquez","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-gresini-racing","tag-how-gresini-pulled-off-the-rescue-operation-with-alex-marquez","tag-japanese-gp","tag-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports","tag-twin-ring-motegi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}