The first half of Marc Marquez's 2025 in the MotoGP paddock is already fairytale stuff if you only look at what's going on in the premier class - he's quickest almost every time bikes are on track, leads the championship by triple digits and has his beloved brother Alex on target for runner-up.
So how can you make that even more rosy? How about having Marquez's protege get off to a historically good start in the jungle of Moto3, while still being under that series' age limit?
It's tempting to mentally pencil Maximo Quiles in as the first 'MM93 Academy' rider, in parallel to what Valentino Rossi has done with Italian talent.
Marquez himself would bristle at that description, pointing out that Alex is also involved and that Quiles is part of Vertical Management - rather than a fictional 'MM93 Academy' - headed up by the brothers and their manager Jaime Martinez.
The 17-year-old Quiles is fourth in Moto3 in his first season. He's not in the title fight - there is no title fight, as third-year KTM protege Jose Antonio Rueda is obliterating the field - yet Quiles has surpassed all expectations just the same.
In his absence, the unlucky Alvaro Carpe - third in the standings, and another KTM factory rider - would be talk of the town as a rookie instead. And Carpe looks good. Quiles looks like a supernova.
While under the Moto3 age limit of 18, Quiles was at least allowed to start racing in the world championship at 17 as he fulfilled certain results requirements in the regulations - but even that meant skipping the first two rounds of the season. He then skipped another two immediately after his debut due to a training injury.
But that single round, at the Circuit of the Americas (how fitting), was enough already to raise an eyebrow. Quiles stuck it on front row in Texas - and, instead of this being a one-off, he has maintained virtually that exact level since his return.
A first pole came at Le Mans. A first win came at Mugello. Podiums have become so common that he's lost count. Rueda is dominating on points-per-round, but in the non-Rueda category rookie Quiles is himself well clear.
Quiles was already plenty accomplished in the pre-grand prix levels. He was European Talent Cup champion twice and a race winner in three successive Red Bull Rookies Cup campaigns on what is basically an upgraded production version of the bike he's racing in Moto3 now.
He's well-prepared, as are most grand prix rookies these days - there's a reason it's much easier to make an instant impact in Moto3 than to make one going Moto3-to-Moto2.
Still, this is not normal. He is scoring at an eye-popping rate - and, if you're the kind of person who feels that Moto3 races can be a little random and pack-dependent, as a measure of single-lap 'pure' speed he is qualifying phenomenally.
First eight career Moto3/125cc rounds - qualifying average
Current MotoGP riders vs Maximo Quiles
Morbidelli/Aldeguer/Marini/Chantra - N/A
Marco Bezzecchi - 27.1
Pecco Bagnaia - 26.9
Jack Miller - 22.5
Fabio Di Giannantonio - 21.9
Raul Fernandez - 21.3
Jorge Martin - 19.8
Ai Ogura - 19.3
Johann Zarco - 19.1
Marc Marquez - 18.6
Brad Binder - 18.0
Grid average - 17.6
Alex Marquez - 17.5
Alex Rins - 16.4
Joan Mir - 14.6
Enea Bastianini - 14.6
Pedro Acosta - 14.5
Miguel Oliveira - 11.1
Fabio Quartararo - 7.0
Maverick Vinales - 5.9
Maximo Quiles - 4.5
Yes, most of those riders didn't have a title-winning package like Quiles has at Aspar. Some of them had Mahindras, some had a yet-unproven 125cc KTM.
But Quiles's team-mate Dennis Foggia - once a Moto3 title contender, now re-learning the category (and learning the Pirellis) after two "really bad" years in Moto2 with "a lot of sleepless nights" - isn't scaling the same heights.
Foggia (pictured above, right) is heavier than Quiles and that kind of step back down is always difficult, but at the very least he is a credible benchmark Quiles is comparing superbly to.
Let's look at some other benchmarks. Quiles has 126 points after his eight races - how often do Moto3 riders reach that kind of tally eight races into a campaign?
Moto3 riders on 126 or more points after eight rounds
2012: Sandro Cortese, Maverick Vinales
2013: Luis Salom, Maverick Vinales, Alex Rins
2014: none
2015: Danny Kent
2016: Brad Binder
2017: Joan Mir
2018: none
2019: none
2020: none
2021: Pedro Acosta
2022: Sergio Garcia
2023: none
2024: David Alonso
2025: Jose Antonio Rueda (pictured below)
There's just the one lightweight-class rookie on that list - Acosta, who was an immediate sensation in Moto3 and has since repeatedly backed it up.
But Acosta was very specifically the master of picking his way through the field - Quiles hasn't reached those heights, but in some aspects he has been more eye-catching. Acosta was on the first three rows just three times in his first 10 outings - Quiles has done it every single time so far.
Quiles was always expected to be fast - just not necessarily this fast. The big question for many would've been whether he's calmed himself enough and matured enough, given his biggest headline-making event last year was a shockingly dangerous bit of last-lap defensive riding in the Red Bull Rookies Cup that put Ruche Moodley in real peril and earned Quiles a rightful two-race ban.
"I was really young, I had much to learn. Now I think I'm much more mature, I learned a lot from these mistakes that I made in the past," Quiles has insisted this year. He has, truthfully, looked a little wild on occasion in Moto3, but no more than that, the worst of the instincts clearly curbed.
The expectation for the second half of the season will be sky high. Marquez - who Quiles charmingly referred to as "my boss" - is clearly aware of that.
"Maximo arrived in the championship with a very good energy, good mentality, that is the most important in a young talent, good family around him. We are very happy," Marquez said at Mugello two months ago.
"He needs to make the mistakes of the young talent, needs to bear all those moments in the world championship. But especially the most important is he needs to be aware about all the social media, good comments, because [keeping] feet on the ground is the most important for a young rider."
Marquez may remember former VR46 protege Nicolo Bulega, who had such a good start to life in Moto3 himself but flamed out on the grand prix racing scene over the next few years. More likely, he thinks of Fabio Quartararo - whose explosive start in Moto3 was followed by years in the doldrums.
What Bulega and Quartararo have in common, though, is that they both made it later down the line - Bulega as a World Superbike frontrunner, Quartararo as an elite MotoGP rider and champion. The talent was there to unlock.
On this early evidence, with Maximo Quiles, whatever the trajectory from here, there will always be talent to bet on.
