Early Sunday morning, I happened to cross paths with Gigi Dall’Igna, Ducati’s technical mastermind and top boss, at the entrance to the Le Mans paddock. After exchanging the usual greetings, and without me asking anything, he said, “these things happen,” referring to Marc Márquez’s withdrawal from the French Grand Prix and at least the Catalan GP as well. “Exactly,” I replied, and since it wasn’t appropriate to grill him at that early hour, we moved on to personal topics. But before parting, I shared my theory: this isn’t a farewell from Márquez to the title, but rather an extra dose of emotion that all fans of the sport will relish.
For starters, recall that last year the nine-time champion clinched the crown in Japan, leaving him with five races to spare—Indonesia (where he got injured), Australia, Malaysia, Portugal, and Valencia. That means he wasn’t part of the fight for the final 185 championship points, yet he still finished the season 78 points ahead of runner-up Álex Márquez.
Now, the Ducati Lenovo rider trails Marco Bezzecchi by 71 points. If Bezzecchi manages a double win in Catalonia this weekend, the gap could stretch to 108. That’s a significant margin, no doubt, but there will still be 592 points up for grabs—a staggering amount. Looked at another way, Marc would need to recover just 18.24% of the remaining points, a target that, with his shoulder healed, is far more achievable for him than for anyone else.
