{"id":378408,"date":"2025-12-29T15:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T15:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378408\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T15:15:08","slug":"why-marc-marquez-is-expecting-an-intense-2026-motogp-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378408\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Marc Marquez is expecting an \u201cintense\u201d 2026 MotoGP season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reigning MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez believes the 2026 season will be \u201cvery intense\u201d, as he names the riders he considers to pose the biggest threat.<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old Spaniard comes into the new year as the reigning champion for the first time since 2020, after dominating the 2025 campaign for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/ducati-lenovo-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ducati<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1654\/marc-marquez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marc Marquez<\/a> won 11 grands prix and 14 sprints, as well as scoring seven successive 37-point weekends between Aragon and Hungary, to ease to his seventh premier class title.<\/p>\n<p>He now stands level with MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi and is one away from the record of eight held by Giacomo Agostini.<\/p>\n<p>He goes into the 2026 season as the overwhelming favourite to win the championship again in the final year of the 1000cc formula, though he is taking nothing for granted.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery year is different,\u201d he told El Periodico.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo matter how well you\u2019ve done one year, it doesn\u2019t mean the next will be the same or better.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s usually worse at the start, because everyone has their eyes on you.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we have to work hard this winter to be as prepared as possible, because there will be some very tough rivals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s Alex [Marquez], the runner-up in the world championship.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[There\u2019s Marco] Bezzecchi, who finished the year in good form. And Pecco Bagnaia, a two-time MotoGP world champion who has the same bike.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re expecting a very intense season, especially the first part.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ducati faced a growing threat from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/aprilia-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aprilia<\/a> as the 2025 season progressed, with the rival Italian brand enjoying its best year ever in MotoGP.<\/p>\n<p>It scored four grands prix victories on its way to runner-up spot in the manufacturers\u2019 table, while Marco Bezzecchi climbed into the top three in the riders\u2019 rankings.<\/p>\n<p>Marquez missed the final four rounds due to a complicated shoulder injury following a collision with Bezzecchi at the Indonesian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, he still finished 78 points clear of Alex Marquez in second in the standings and 192 ahead of Bezzecchi.<\/p>\n<p>Marquez\u2019s recovery is going well, and he is expected to be able to take part in the first pre-season test of 2026 at Sepang in February.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reigning MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez believes the 2026 season will be \u201cvery intense\u201d, as he names the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,8456,4280,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-378408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ducati-lenovo-team","11":"tag-marc-marquez","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378408","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=378408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}