Marc Márquez no longer celebrates: what’s behind the serious face

• After his sprint win at Motegi, Márquez is just 2 points behind championship leader Jorge Martin.
• According to his surgeon, his right arm is operating at around 50 percent of its full capacity.
• By his own account, Márquez avoids big swings in adrenaline in order to save energy over the weekend.

It was an unfamiliar sight for many fans. At the last two sprint races of the 2026 MotoGP season, in Austria and Japan, Marc Márquez stood on the podium looking almost motionless. No broad grin, no celebration, barely a gesture. Speculation quickly spread that the Ducati factory rider was annoyed. But the explanation is a different one, and it has a lot to do with his shoulder, the packed race calendar and the tight title duel with Aprilia.

Why doesn’t Marc Márquez celebrate his sprint results?

Márquez does not celebrate because, by his own account, he wants to save energy. This is not only about physical strength but above all about the strain caused by constant emotional swings.

After his sprint win at Motegi, he was asked directly about his serious demeanour. His answer was brief: “I’m not being serious, I’m saving energy.” He explained that it is not laughing itself that tires him. What is exhausting, rather, are the switches between highs and lows. A win therefore does not change his attitude; he simply stays focused.

In the week before the Japanese GP, he had already stressed to Spanish media that he had by no means been annoyed on the podium at Spielberg. He had achieved his goal in the sprint and then deliberately kept calm to gather strength for the long race on Sunday. If smiling or laughing out loud costs energy, he would rather stay serious.

What does adrenaline have to do with losing strength?

According to Márquez, every adrenaline rush costs strength later on, because every peak is followed by a crash. His goal is therefore to keep the curve as flat as possible.

He describes the process like this: in qualifying, adrenaline rises sharply and then drops again. In the afternoon sprint, the whole thing repeats itself. It is precisely this up and down that costs a lot of energy. Physically, on the other hand, a race weekend is manageable because the riders are prepared for it. In his words, a test day in Malaysia is actually much harder in that respect.

Since the introduction of sprint races in 2023, Saturday has been considered the most stressful day of the weekend. Qualifying is in the morning, the sprint in the afternoon. And even on Friday the riders have to attack flat out, because only the top ten in practice go straight through to the second part of qualifying, Q2 for short. On top of that come media and fan commitments. Márquez pointed out that none of this is visible on TV. Even after the podium ceremony, you are still standing sweating in your leathers doing interviews. These demands add up, and his task is to manage his strength from Thursday to Sunday.

What role does the right shoulder injury play?

The shoulder is the real reason for the new approach. According to his surgeon, his right arm is currently operating at around 50 percent of its full capacity.

The most recent operation on his right shoulder was a direct consequence of his crash at last year’s Indonesian Grand Prix, when Marco Bezzecchi took him out at the start. The right arm is put under particularly heavy strain when riding a MotoGP bike and is also the part of Márquez’s body that has undergone the most injuries and operations over the years.

After the operation, he had to realign his training and his entire preparation. Previous changes had mainly revolved around his body. This time the change goes further and also concerns how he handles emotions. From the summer, roughly around the time of the British Grand Prix in August, the recovery of his shoulder reached a point where little further major progress can be expected. Since then, his focus has been on managing his energy as well as possible from Friday to Sunday afternoon.

How has saving energy developed over the course of the season?

Managing his strength was already an issue for Márquez before the summer, though at that time mainly on track. At the Brno Grand Prix in June, he spoke openly about it being the only way to get through the weekend.

In the Czech Republic, he sometimes completed only four fast laps in the morning and four in the afternoon during practice. A perfect weekend is not possible this way, he admitted, but: “it’s the only way I can survive the weekend.” After finishing third in the sprint, with track temperatures of 55 degrees and air temperatures of 35 degrees, he also said that without further progress he would not have many years left in racing.

How hard it is for him to hold back was shown by the first practice session in Brno. Márquez set the fastest time there but afterwards called it pointless. He had used too much strength and paid for it in the afternoon; he would rather have finished tenth. Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi later advised him against going for another fast attempt. Márquez explained that his instinct is hard to rein in once he closes his visor. In one left-hand corner he deliberately backed off to save strength for the right-handers, which put more strain on his right arm.

He sets priorities off the track too. Before the British Grand Prix he skipped a fan event in London, with Diogo Moreira appearing in his place. A six-hour commitment on a Thursday was not ideal for a rider’s physical condition, he explained at the time. At Motegi he sent a lookalike to the kart race on Sunday morning because he was icing his shoulder. Before that, he had used the warm-up, extended to 20 minutes, to test the hard rear tyre, which nobody had run until then and which most riders later chose for the race.

Where does Márquez stand in the title fight with Jorge Martin?

After the weekend in Japan, Márquez is just 2 points behind Jorge Martin. Over the course of the season, he had previously clawed back a deficit of more than 100 points.

At Motegi he took his seventh sprint win of the season and his fifth double of sprint and main race, the fourth in the last six race weekends. After the sprint in Austria, where he finished second behind Martin, the gap was still 3 points. The two Aprilia riders, Martin and Bezzecchi, are considered his serious rivals in the title fight.

Despite saving energy, Márquez is in attacking mode. Before the Japanese GP, he declared that the phase of damage limitation was over: “From now on, it’s all about attacking.” Only if a technical problem occurs, as it did on Sunday in Austria with the brakes, do you have to salvage what you can. A third of the championship is still to come, and every point counts. In total, he is fighting for his tenth world title, the eighth in the premier class. This title will not change his life, he says, even though he has never made so many sacrifices for a goal.

What does the new 2027 weekend format mean for Márquez?

From 2027 there is set to be a separate qualifying session for the sprint. How that fits with Márquez’s strategy remains to be seen.

In the background, Liberty Media is restructuring the MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group, MGPSEG for short. According to those responsible, the aim is to showcase the series more strongly as a spectacle. This includes events such as the kart race at Motegi. For a rider who wants to dose every adrenaline rush, an additional session means more strain. In the short term, however, the Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika comes first, the place where Márquez has never finished a Grand Prix and where he suffered his shoulder injury last year.

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