What does Marc Marquez have to do to get back to his best?

Simple mathematics gives plenty of credit to the concept that Marc Marquez is in a position to recover lost ground on MotoGP's championship leaders, and that a title fight is possible before the end of the season.

After finishing seventh in Portimao, Marquez will return to the scene of his arm-breaking accident last year, Jerez, next week lying fourteenth in the standings and some 52 points behind championship leader Fabio Quartararo. Since he first stepped up to MotoGP in 2013, the biggest deficit the Spaniard has overturned was the 37-point advantage Maverick Vinales held over him following the first three rounds of 2017, when Marquez was ultimately pushed closer for the title by Andrea Dovizioso. Back then there were sixteen rounds still remaining of the season – two fewer than scheduled for this year (COVID allowing).

Still, it’s enough to get the minds of fans and journalists whirring, enticed by the possibilities of basing each individual athlete’s performance purely on the numbers. However, Honda’s star man has made it clear that the title is the least of his worries right now, as he focuses purely on returning to being the rider he was before Jerez last year. That task, as far as we can tell, will not be completed overnight but will be a step by step process that must first traverse a series of smaller targets.

To get more insight, Autosport spoke to Pep Font, a member of the psychology department at the Centre of High Performance (CAR) in Sant Cugat, Barcelona.

“Looking at what Marc has demonstrated over his career, I think he is one of those people that has the quality of setting appropriate targets,” says Font, a specialist in high performance who has worked on mental preparation with top riders including Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Coma amongst many others.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Honda Racing

“Right now, he won’t be thinking about winning races or titles. His immediate goals will be far less grand but far more useful for his situation.

“I think the objectives he sets will be ambitious but realistic. This is a key factor, because the pressure that comes from meeting these targets is ultimately set by himself, so in some way he will know that he is capable of coping with it.

"When I arrived in the box with all my mechanics I just exploded and I couldn’t control the emotions" Marc Marquez

“[These targets] could be things on the bike, such as his riding position, his style, his time through certain sectors or comparisons with another rider.”

According to Font, the important thing is that as he ticks off each objective, Marquez continues to look further and further ahead.

“The thing that makes having all these small goals work is [that they contribute to] the final objective,” he says.

Seeing the eight-time world champion burst into tears on his return to the garage after finishing seventh at Portimao gives us some insight into just what he has been through over the past nine months. This is a rider who, in his own words, “prefers not to show these kinds of emotions,” but on this occasion he was overcome by the moment.

“When I arrived in the box with all my mechanics I just exploded and I couldn’t control the emotions,” he said.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Honda Racing

“[It] has been a very long time that I’ve been dreaming about today, finishing a MotoGP race and it’s the biggest step in my rehabilitation, my recovery and to feel again [being] a MotoGP rider was my dream and it’s what I did today.

“So, when I arrived in the box, of course I was tried and I was exhausted. But it was the explosion of emotion that I couldn’t control, but was very nice.”

As he admitted during several hours of press conferences over the course of the weekend, there were times when he doubted that he would ever return to racing. Worse still, he wondered if he would even get full use of his right arm back at all. All of that pressure was relieved in that one moment, when the whole box burst into a rapturous applause.

With the biggest monkey off his back, Marquez now faces a different kind of pressure.

“The most damaging pressure is that which is generated, unintentionally, within the athlete’s immediate environment,” says Font. “And it all comes down to the use of one verb: to prove. This word ‘prove’ contributes to the creation of expectation, but it is important to consider that a large component part of expectation is irrational.

“Of course, Marc could return to dominate this championship again, but he must not feel obliged to do so because it is not something that can be taken for granted. It might happen, it might not. People around him, in trying to help, could end up putting a heavy load on his shoulders.

“With the best intentions, saying things like, ‘you’ll be back to the rider you were,’ or ‘you’ll definitely win again,’ generates tremendous expectation, because of his record and everything that he has achieved in the past. Marc can manage that, but he needs to be aware that this phenomenon exists.”

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Honda Racing

“This is the biggest step I have taken in my recuperation,” reflected Marquez himself on Sunday, with the relief of somebody who has just enjoyed a cathartic experience. “It went better than I expected.”

"Marc could return to dominate this championship again, but he must not feel obliged to do so because it is not something that can be taken for granted. It might happen, it might not" Pep Font

The 28-year-old took that first step back in his own true style: with conviction. There is no other reflection to be taken from his performance at Portimao, a track where he had never ridden before on a MotoGP bike, and where he arrived some 265 days since last throwing his leg over his RC213V, without any preseason behind him.

Despite all of that, he crossed the line just thirteen seconds behind the race winner Quartararo and 10 seconds ahead of supposed title contender Vinales, with the ninth fastest lap of the race on what was also his last lap.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images