That machine on the track is only half the battle, and as Motorsport.com reports, the fight off it is getting louder by the weekend. Marc Marquez (Ducati Team) has taken his ongoing resistance against the championship's peripheral demands a step further, labeling his post-sprint podium commitments as "inhumane" following a scorching race in Indonesia.
Saturday's sprint victory on the island of Lombok brought the intense local heat into sharp focus, but the Spaniard's frustration isn't new. Ever since the Austrian sprint race two events ago, his subdued celebrations have raised eyebrows as he deliberately prioritizes energy preservation and his pursuit of an eighth MotoGP world title above all else. The defiance has taken various forms: last weekend in Japan, he sent a stunt double to handle a promotional kart race on Sunday morning, while a pre-event appearance ahead of the British GP in August was skipped entirely.
Speaking to DAZN after his latest win, Marquez made no apologies for skipping the standard post-race routine to manage his physical state in brutal conditions. When questioned about his fatigued appearance, he didn't hold back. "It's inhumane having to stand there on the podium in my racing suit," he said, adding that while the optics work for cameras, the toll it takes hurts his performance for the grand prix the following day. Rather than taking the usual golf cart ride, he opted for a quick dip to cool his body down, defending the move simply: "We’re elite athletes; we all look after our own interests."
The friction between riders and series bosses shows little sign of easing up. During his media briefing, Marquez confirmed that more promotional duties loom large at what stands as one of the calendar's most critical rounds commercially, noting that a mandatory 10-minute stint in the "hero walk" had just been communicated to them that very day.
While he made it clear that the organizers are steadily tightening the grip on rider schedules with demands that are "always a little bit more, you know?", the Ducati Team star ultimately resigned himself to the reality of the situation. "It's like it is and we must do that," he concluded.
