The most dominant performance in motorsports in 2014 came on two wheels, not four.
In fact, Marc Marquez's 2014 season in the MotoGP series was downright historic, as the 21-year-old Spaniard rewrote several long-standing records in top-level motorcycle road racing.
For a while, it looked like Marquez would emulate the legendary Giacomo Agostini by sweeping to victory at every race on the calendar. Fresh off winning the 2013 MotoGP title as a rookie, Marquez remained unbeaten through the middle of August 2014, reeling off 10 consecutive race wins to build an unassailable points lead over challengers Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.
Marquez eventually set a record of 13 wins in a season on the way to his second consecutive MotoGP crown. The dominant performance triggered comparisons with the greatest two-wheel champions from the past, including Agostini, Rossi, Mike Hailwood and Mick Doohan.
Marquez is the youngest champion (and the youngest two-time champion) in Grand Prix motorcycle racing history. And here's the scary part: He keeps getting better.
"Marc is a rider who is faster from the beginning with everything; he's naturally talented to ride any type of bike," said Rossi, who won six MotoGP championships between 2002 and 2009.
"The question at the end of last year for his rivals was how much he could improve compared to the first season, because usually from the rookie season to the second season, the good riders improve quite a lot.
"Unfortunately for us, he was able to improve," Rossi added. "Not a lot about his speed, but about his riding style, the way to use the bike, the way to brake and to accelerate. He remained very aggressive, but now it looks like the situation is more under control for him. Last year sometimes he risked too much."
If there's a knock on Marquez, it's that he tends to crash too much. But he also has a knack for doing it at the right time, in practice or qualifying when the penalty is not so severe.
It's reminiscent of the way legendary Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve used to work up to the limit for a given corner until he spun the car, learning at that point just how far was too far.
"The usual idea that people have of why a new rider may be faster than everyone is of course the old 'hot blood and big balls' theory," observed longtime cycle racing journalist Kevin Cameron. "The new guy comes in, and he's more willing to push to the limit. There are any number of hot riders coming along at any time -- people who crash all the time, who push very hard and pay a price in inconsistency.
"Marquez will say, 'I am always at the limit,' but you'll notice that he crashes only in practice," Cameron continued. "He never crashes in the race. That means he is intentionally studying. He's saying to himself, 'I wonder if I could do this, if the tires will permit it.' I think this is a highly intelligent person with an agile mind and an imagination. And he's very conservative in the race in the sense that he pulls back from the edge just enough to insure a result.
"To see someone that does his experiments in practice and then completes the distance every time, that's exceptional."
Even when he does crash, Marquez has displayed the physical and mental toughness to get right back in the saddle. He won the 2014 season opener in Qatar just four weeks after breaking his right fibula in a testing accident.
Despite coming in at a young age and immediately schooling the masters, Marquez has managed to minimize jealousy or bad blood among his rivals.
At the Red Bull Grand Prix of Indianapolis, a surreal scene unfolded in the prerace press conference when the likes of Rossi and Lorenzo were asked point-blank what made Marquez so good, all while the young Spaniard was sitting among them.
Marquez's rivals were forced to admit in his presence that he had them essentially beaten before they arrived at the track. Yet to hear him tell it, his second championship presented more of a challenge than his first.
"Maybe this year looked easy to people, but it was more difficult because last year I didn't have pressure," he said at Twin Ring Motegi after clinching the 2014 title. "If I did some mistakes [in 2013], it was OK because I was a rookie rider. This year I always looked smiley and happy, but it was really difficult to keep that level and that concentration because people were expecting a lot of things of you.
"I saw that with more experience, everything was easier," he added. "When you arrive at a circuit and everything isn't new, you have all the references from last year and you know all the secrets. Honda did a great job and gave me a chassis that is better for my riding style. I've made less mistakes, but we've still made mistakes and we can improve."
Marquez's new challenge is to maintain the kind of championship-winning domination he has built over the past two years. It won't be easy, with Honda teammate Pedrosa and two-time MotoGP champion Lorenzo back to full strength after being affected by injuries over parts of the past two seasons.
There's also the resurgent Rossi, who returned to title contention in 2013 as Lorenzo's teammate at Yamaha after a series of disappointing campaigns for Ducati.
It's difficult and frustrating to compare eras, but a MotoGP three-peat would certainly establish Marquez as one of the all-time greats.
Doohan, who won five consecutive MotoGP titles from 1994 to '98 and held the previous category record with 12 wins (including 10 consecutive) during his 1997 title run, believes Marquez has the potential to join him in an exclusive club.
"He's certainly the man of the moment -- he's making the other guys look like amateurs," Doohan told Australian news agency AAP this past summer when Marquez matched his 10-race win streak.
"He's got a teammate on a similar bike, he's got good rivals on other competitive bikes, but he's just riding on a different level to everybody. He's consistent as well. He doesn't make a mistake.
"What he gets away with is nothing short of spectacular."