- Stoner sees Marquez’s tire management and race strategy as decisive advantages
- The Australian compares Marquez’s approach to that of Max Verstappen in Formula 1
- Marquez’s difficult years are said to have made him mentally stronger and more patient
In an interview with Crash.net, conducted as part of his role as a kind of final boss in the video game Ride 6, Casey Stoner spoke at length about Marc Marquez’s strengths. The Australian, who never competed against Marquez in MotoGP himself, has been following his career since the beginning. Stoner was replaced by Marquez at Repsol Honda in 2012 after announcing his early retirement at the age of 27.
Racing strategy instead of pure speed
Stoner has no doubt about Marquez’s talent and speed.
“There’s no doubting his talent, his speed, anything like that, there’s no questioning it. If you did, then there’s something wrong with you,” Stoner said.
However, Stoner does not see the decisive difference in pure pace, but in racing strategy. Many riders in the current field are fast, but they do not fully exploit their race craft skills. This is exactly where Marquez makes the difference. Stoner also spoke of a previous weakness in Marquez that no one recognized or exploited. However, he did not want to go into details. Instead, many riders viewed Marquez as some kind of invincible opponent, rather than focusing on improving themselves and developing specific strategies against him.
Six years between two titles as a maturing process
There were six years between his 2019 world championship title and his next title win in 2025, longer than any other rider in MotoGP history. Injuries kept Marquez away from racing, and a poor-performing Honda eventually forced him to switch to Gresini Racing before he ended up with the Ducati factory team. Stoner drew a comparison, saying that his entire MotoGP career was about as long as the time between Marquez’s last two title wins.
“He’s been there quite a few years now,” Stoner noted.
However, these difficult years did not weaken Marquez, but rather built up an additional level of mental strength, intelligence, and patience. According to Stoner, these are the qualities that his current competitors lack. Marquez now wins more strategically than in the past, when he was more associated with pure speed and a greater willingness to take risks.
Tire management as the key to success
A central element in Stoner’s analysis is Marquez’s tire management. The competition does not seem to understand what Marquez does in races to conserve his tires. Stoner described how many observers only see Marquez riding at a single speed, when in fact he uses a different strategy in every race. A consistent pattern throughout the 2025 season was his patience with the tires, which, in his opinion, too few observers recognized.
Stoner drew a comparison to Formula 1 and specifically to Max Verstappen. Similar to Verstappen, who needs several laps after a pit stop before he can put the new tires to full speed, Marquez also handles his tires with care. This patience at the start of the race gives him a significant advantage at the end. Stoner emphasized that Marquez had always been particularly strong at the end of races, especially in the second half of the 2025 season, because he had treated his tires so gently in the early stages.
Electronics as a tool rather than a crutch
The second aspect that Stoner highlighted concerns Marquez’s handling of the electronics. While most riders rely heavily on electronic assistance systems, Marquez works ahead of the electronics, so to speak. He explained the principle by saying that the electronics always react to a situation first. When the motorcycle starts to slip, the electronics intervene. However, Marquez holds back the electronics and thus protects the tires in such a way that when the electronic systems do have to intervene later, they do not have to deal with a rapid and uncontrolled loss of grip, but with a slower and more predictable process.
According to Stoner, this means that Marquez straightens the motorcycle earlier than other riders, rides with slightly less cornering speed, and accelerates out of the corner with more confidence, without the rear tire slipping and spinning excessively. This allows him to maintain a higher level of grip than his competitors, and when the electronics have to intervene later on as grip decreases, Marquez still has reserves that other riders would lack.
Stoner is particularly well placed to assess this aspect, as a low dependence on electronics was also a hallmark of his own riding style. He developed this ability on the oil-slicked sand tracks in Australia.
“It’s something that I prided myself on, that I didn’t need the electronics,” said Stoner.
He went on to explain that a rider who can recognize the grip level slightly ahead of the electronics will always be faster because he can react earlier. The electronics always work with a delay because they only register the loss of grip once it has already occurred. Marquez has internalized this principle and consistently uses it to his advantage.
Patience as an underestimated weapon
In summary, Stoner paints a picture of a rider who has fundamentally developed over the years. The Marquez of the 2020s is no longer the risk-taking rider of the past, but a strategically minded racer who knows how to use his tools, namely tires and electronics, better than anyone else in the field. The fact that this development is apparently underestimated by the competition only increases Marquez’s advantage.
What this means for me as a MotoGP fan
Anyone who takes Stoner’s analysis to heart will watch MotoGP races with different eyes in the future. Instead of just paying attention to overtaking maneuvers and lap times, it is worth observing Marquez’s behavior in the first laps of the race more closely. How does he handle the throttle? When does he straighten up the bike? How much distance does he allow between himself and the leader at the start? According to Stoner, it is precisely these details that reveal the real difference. For fans, this means that the most exciting phase of a Marquez race is not necessarily the final lap with the decisive overtaking maneuver, but possibly already lap three or four, when he appears to be riding cautiously but is in fact already laying the foundation for victory. Once you realize this, you may never see the races the same way again.
