Marc Marquez admits to having 'many doubts' and 'losing weight' over Gresni Ducati move from Repsol Honda

Marc Marquez has admitted the "many doubts" he has had over his switch to Gresni Ducati from Repsol Honda.

Following a successful 11 years with Honda, where he won six titles and 59 Grand Prix races, Marquez will be leaving in search of a new challenge next season.

The six-time MotoGP champion says he will be moving to the "best bike" but has revealed some of the uncertainty around the switch.

“After a big decision, you have some doubts,” he told Dorna/Story10 ahead of the Malaysian GP.

“And it’s super difficult to jump to another bike and straight away win in the first year. But it’s true, I’m moving to the best bike. First, second and third riders in the championship are riding this bike, so in the end [there are] no excuses. The bike is there.

“Sometimes you need to take a few decisions, but are they the correct ones or not? Time will answer this question. On the mental side, it was super difficult, especially because I was nervous, I had many doubts.

“Every day, every week I changed my mentality, lots of question marks, I was losing weight. At the same time performing on the racetrack was difficult but we tried to manage it in the best way.

“For me, the most difficult thing to take the decision was the human side. I will miss a lot my team, I will miss a lot Honda and I will miss a lot HRC. They are the team of my career.”

Despite second-guessing the switch, Marquez feels he has every chance to succeed on his new bike but expects there will be a lot of pressure on him to succeed from the off.

“I would say if somebody moved to a good bike, I would put pressure to him saying ‘Yes, he will be super-fast’ because like this I take pressure from me and I put pressure to him,” he explained.

“When you have some difficult moments on the racetrack and you think you are performing in a good way but the results are not coming then you start to have some doubts, especially because since 2020 my years were like a nightmare.

“As an athlete, you must survive when you have difficult moments. You have some doubts. Of course, you have some doubts in yourself, but I will answer these doubts next year to see if they are true doubts or everything is okay.”

Marquez is not expecting instant success and believes it will take time for him to begin reaping the rewards after a difficult period with HRC.

Despite the initial doubts, he believes there are promising time ahead.

“To think that I will go out with the bike and win all races it’s impossible,” Marquez said. “Then of course I would lie if I told you that’s OK. It’s a new motivation.

“New motivation means that you want to understand many things. Basically just try to feel again that butterflies in the stomach when you come to the circuits, that extra pressure and at least, maybe not every race, but be competitive in those top positions in some racetrack.”

Marquez is 14th in the MotoGP standings with three races of the season remaining.

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