At home with Marc Márquez: FIFA, dogs and a whole lot of coffee

For the past twenty years, Marc Márquez's world has entirely revolved around MotoGP, meaning that even his home life has been entirely defined by making him faster, fitter and keeping him winning. And it worked. Six premier MotoGP world titles down the line and he was unstoppable…but come a major injury and things took an entirely new turn. He was faced with an operation, a break from racing, and questions about how, when — and even if — he'd ever come back to the sport.

It's at times like these when athletes normally disappear for a period of time, but for Márquez, it felt like an opportunity to highlight the hidden side of a sport as brutal as racing. He let the cameras in, filming a five-part documentary with Red Bull TV that followed him along this journey — and his road to comeback. Life was different, but the mentality that made him such a renowned champion remained. He kept routine at the heart of his everyday life, focusing on nutrition and spending his time keeping fit by cycling on trails around Spain, running and walking his dog. Even time to relax was scheduled precisely, whether playing video games or time spent cooking.

Márquez is finally back on the circuit, and while there are still plenty of highs and lows, his determination to win again is clear as we catch up with him about the past year. There are still questions around if he'll race the Dutch GP next weekend, but if there's one thing that's certain: Márquez isn't giving up anytime soon.

What are your essentials for keeping fit when you’re not racing or in your downtime? We see you recovering from injury in the documentary: what kind of things do you do outside of racing and training?

I’m an athlete, so I like to be healthy even if I’m on vacation. I like to take care of my diet, and I think it's one of the most important parts. Of course, I also just like sports and training, and even on vacation I like to be active. Maybe when I retire I'll stop, I don’t know, but I like to feel fit.

How do you stay fit in your spare time? And how do you track them?

I like cycling a lot, and running too. One of the most important things is to track your rhythm or your pace so I have a Garmin watch for that. My bike is a Mondraker F-Podium Carbon DC-RR.

You’ve been racing for a long time. What do you do differently now that you didn’t do when you were younger?

When I started racing I was really young and it was just all about riding the bikes and that was it. Now I’m 30 and I've realised I need to take more and more care of my body: controlling everything, doing more physical therapy sessions and all those things. Everything feels bigger.

When we made the documentary, it was not only about racing, they were following me every day with cameras. And when you open up your personal life, people can really say anything about you. I hope it's a documentary that people can take something from, and I hope they like it.

The period of your life that we follow in the documentary: how would you describe that to people who haven’t seen it yet? It’s quite a changing time for you recovering from injury. How was that whole process for you?

What I will say is that this is the other side of an athlete. Normally when athletes have success and good results, that's when you open your house and have the cameras showing that you are happy. But then when you have a difficult moment, normally you go into more of a protective period and the cameras don’t go in with you.

So for this, I said: why not? I've had many people filming me in the past when I was winning, but not in a difficult moment. We are humans, and we have difficult moments, and many people who have problems in their personal life I think can maybe approach theirs in the same mode. I hope it can help.

What was key for you in that period? What were the main things that got you through?

For me, the key was positive mentality and having a routine. That was very important. Motivation changes every day because some days you are very down, but if you keep the routine, and people around you, it helps. I had the correct people around me, family and friends and my team and that was a big help.

You're on camera a lot… how do you take care of your skin? Any grooming essentials?

Yeah, being an athlete I like to take care of my skin, of course. I’m a big fan of Natura Bissé. Not many men follow a routine, but I have one. I like to take care because in the end it's your face, it’s your first impression to people, and for me to the fans.

For sure. What's in your kitchen? Do you spend time there when you're home?

Yes. My Jura coffee machine is one of the most important things in my kitchen…and in my house, actually. When I have free time I love to BBQ, especially on Sundays now that it's warm and nice in Spain. I love to eat barbeque food, but I also just love to cook it. I really enjoy spending an hour or so preparing the vegetables and the meat. If I have free time I really like that.

Another thing we see in the documentary is you playing video games. Does that help you switch off?

Yeah, I’m 30 years old but I play video games because I like it, and while I wouldn’t say it’s part of my routine, I do play three to four days per week. It’s only for an hour and a half at a time before dinner usually, but I schedule it in and it’s part of how I disconnect. When I play video games I don’t think about racing, I don’t think about life, and sometimes I really need it. I like to play FIFA and Call of Duty, and it’s always together with friends connected online.

You also have a dog, right?

Yeah, so we have two dogs. Officially, I have one, but one is my brother’s and we are living together so we have two dogs to take care of.

Does that help you relax at all?

Yeah, I love animals and of course, I love the dogs. It’s a special relationship with the dogs, like when you go out shopping for a few minutes and when you come back they act like they’ve been waiting for you for four or five days. That's nice. It helps me relax to walk around the city with the dogs. They're like friends to share those moments with.

You mention in your documentary that you don’t sleep. What do you do to try and improve that? Any products that work for you?

One of the most important things for an athlete — or anyone, really — is good sleep. But sometimes you can’t control that and you might have physical issues, or on the mental side if you’re worried about something it can be a bit more difficult. Sometimes I take melatonin, but not in big quantities, just very small quantities. If I do that, I can go ten hours and have no problem there. When you have a difficult moment, why not?

You’ve won everything there is to win, pretty much. What are your goals now?

My biggest goal is to come back. Not many athletes in the past have spent three years injured and were able to come back. I want to come back and be competitive again and fight for championships.

Marc Marquez: ALL IN is available to watch globally on Red Bull TV.

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