RUBEN XAUS SAYS MARC MARQUEZ “COMPLETED” WHAT VALENTINO ROSSI COULDN’T DO WITH DUCATI

Former MotoGP rider Ruben Xaus has suggested that Marc Marquez has “completed” a part of Valentino Rossi’s legacy that Rossi, in his view, never managed to finish—winning a MotoGP title with Ducati.

Xaus, speaking to Fanpage.it, framed the comparison around the long-running rivalry between Rossi and Marquez, two seven-time world champions whose relationship has been strained for more than a decade. He pointed to the 2015 title fight as one of the most dramatic turning points in their history, noting that since then they have rarely exchanged words. After Rossi retired at the end of 2021, Marquez has had the space to build on records and achievements that Rossi previously held.

While Rossi remains the all-time leader in Grand Prix victories, Xaus argued that Marquez’s recent championship-winning success with Ducati represents something Rossi failed to do during his own time with the Italian manufacturer. Rossi joined Ducati in 2010 as a nine-time world champion, and Xaus described what a Ducati title would have meant: a tenth premier-class crown and the first Italian rider to bring a championship back to Bologna for the brand.

Instead, Xaus said the move became the start of a difficult period for Rossi, one that lasted until his retirement. In the interview, Xaus was asked to compare Rossi, Marquez, and the first rider to take a title back to Borgo Panigale with him—Casey Stoner. “You can’t really compare them,” Xaus replied at first, before elaborating on how Rossi’s influence helped shape both Stoner and Marquez.

He said Rossi acted as a motivating reference point: “Valentino helped Stoner and Marquez become even better because they both developed by having a role model to look up to.” Xaus likened that dynamic to a constant push toward improvement: “It’s like dangling a carrot in front of a horse: you’ve got something that constantly drives you on.”

From there, Xaus contrasted the riders’ paths. He described Stoner as having “enormous talent” but also an “unusual career.” Marquez, he said, was “a sort of evolved version of Rossi,” adding that he “perfected certain things that Valentino had already done.”

Xaus also credited Marquez with learning from Rossi beyond pure performance, claiming that Marquez took lessons in how to manage media pressure and avoid being pulled into distractions: “Marc also learnt from Rossi how to handle certain media situations and how to avoid getting drawn into certain games.”

That led to his central claim about Ducati: “And Marquez completed something that Rossi had failed to do: winning with Ducati.”

Xaus then returned to Rossi’s time in Bologna, arguing that the pressure on the Italian was a major factor in why he could not secure another premier-class crown with Ducati. “Valentino wanted to end his career by winning on an Italian Ducati,” Xaus said, calling it “the perfect finale that everyone had imagined.” However, he said the reality was different, explaining that “the Ducati of that era was very complicated,” and that Rossi was surrounded by people who cared deeply about him—so much so that, in Xaus’s words, “at times the bike was developed more with the heart than with the head.”

He concluded that the pressure became overwhelming: “The pressure on him was enormous. He tried so many things that in the end he risked losing sight of the right direction. Marquez saw that too.”