Hail Casey Stoner

Apparently? He was potted being arround Mack and he had pseudo adopted Tony in the past. And Pedro Acosta is already confirmed

I forgot he kind of managed (if you can call it that) Tony in the past but that makes so much sense.

“There have been a lot of people involved in this phase, from the first doctors who operated on him to when he went to America for another operation, the physiotherapist, the Joses, the Honda team, of course, his family. And taking an important step, obviously also Gresini and Nadia, who were in the box today, and when Marc came down pit lane, I told them: ‘Come on, this is yours [victory] too.’ And Marc knows how to recognize that, that it's all of that, all those people. So, it's not just the merits of one person; you wouldn't do anything with just one person; the whole team is what helped. But as I say, you can have a very well-supporting team, but in the end, the one on the bike is him, that guy ['el crack', he says, like, The One]. The one who pulls the chestnuts out of the fire is Marc.”

about this post

okay timeline real quick.

august 2018: amid a solid first half of his forth moto2 season, alex marquez is linked with rumours of stepping up to motogp in 2019 inside the petronas srt team set to become yamaha’s new satellite as tech3 moved to ktm

however, lin jarvis (yamaha team manager) is quoted as follows

“To have a [Marquez] brother in Yamaha with MotoGP when the other brother is with our main rival [Honda] would be strange.”

the deal does not go through and alex stays another year in moto2 with marc vds.

early 2019: rumours of alex stepping up to motogp in 2020 via pramac ducati (CAN YOU IMAGINE…)

4th august 2019: brno gp. alex signs with petronas srt, this time meant to STAY in moto2 for 2020 and explore a move up into motogp and onto a yamaha via the satellite team in the following year 2021. alex himself is convinced that even winning the title, he would not get a motogp seat in 2020 and would have to stay in moto2 for another year. a good deal, then.

5th august 2019: surprise, surprise, the very next day, alex marquez is again linked with petronas srt in this press article.

25th august 2019: silverstone gp. things are rosy between marc and vale.

15th september 2019: misano gp. vibes fully off. marc wants to kill vale.

3rd november 2019: sepang gp. jlo decides to retire cause he feels like shit.

17th november 2019: valencia gp. jlo announces his retirement in special press conference. he ends his repsol honda contract one year early, leaving a gap in the grid.

18th november 2019: repsol honda announce alex marquez to be joining his brother marc for the 2020 season on a one-year deal.

2023: dazn publishes a documentary called “alex” which reveals in part the backstory to how the signed contract did not come to pass.

according to alex, yamaha were fine with him racing for petronas srt (running kalexes) in moto2, but not getting a yamaha 2021+ deal in motogp.

razlan razali, petronas srt team over, offered alex a contract for a moto2 seat in 2020 since dorna was allowing him a second bike on the moto2 grid. razlan LIKED alex, and convinced that fabio quartararo, petronas srt motogp rider in 2019 and 2020, would move up into the factory team for 2021, promised alex to reserve him that motogp seat for the 2021 season.

“We had a seat in Moto2, but Dorna gave us another one for 2020. I like Álex, he was on my favorites list. We kept some meetings in secret, and we signed in the Marquez motorhome, so that he would be with us for a year in Moto2, and in 2021, when Fabio left for the official team, take Álex to MotoGP with us.”

Razlan shows at that moment a photo that he keeps on his mobile phone and that had never come to light; in it, the former team principal of Yamaha Petronas appears next to the two Márquez brothers in their motorhome, celebrating the signing of a contract that would finally be annulled by Yamaha.

“We really signed the contract for Álex to be with us, it was in August 2019. I told Yamaha that I wanted to sign Álex for Moto2, and then for MotoGP. And Yamaha said 'No, no member of the Marquez family can be in Yamaha'. I asked them the reason, since this is my team. And they said 'For what happened in 2015'. It became something personal for them.”

AND THEN MARC:

“In our motorhome, in Brno 2019, Álex signs for Petronas. Razlan was brave and honest, he valued the pilot Alex without thinking that this could bother the blue side. As far as I know, when his name came up in the Yamaha box, he was banned from being signed. Even being a satellite team and signing with Petronas, not with Yamaha."

Marc seems convinced that Yamaha has always had something against him, arguing that, in addition to standing up to Valentino Rossi (a fight that exploded in Malaysia 2015), Marc has also fought with other Yamahas in the past such as those ridden by Jorge Lorenzo or Maverick Viñales, and he notices a certain animosity within the structure that Lin Jarvis has been running for years.

“More than rivalry with Rossi, I have always had it with Yamaha, with Lin Jarvis I have never talked much. It's sad that these things happen in the paddock. I think that no matter how much someone is family or friends, things have to be differentiated. And I'm telling you that many friends in the paddock talk more about technical things among themselves than what my brother and I talk about,” Marc says to make it clear that, no matter how good a relationship he has with Álex, he has never shared with him secrets of his factory.

SO. the thing is, did the contract really last five days or could it have lasted twenty. if the contract DID last five days, then it was over with by the time austria comes around, not to speak of silverstone and misano. in that case i think your theory doesn’t hold up, because marc and vale were VERY cordial with each other in silverstone. however, if the contract DID hold out until after silverstone, that would make it more legit.