On Wednesday, MotoGP was shaken by a major announcement: Marc Marquez, six times world champion, will leave Gresini to join the official Ducati team from next year. Alongside Francesco Bagnaia, Marquez will form a dream team that promises to redefine the competition. This change marks the end of a tumultuous week and completely transforms the trajectory of Marquez and Jorge Martin, the current championship leader.
Initially, Ducati had chosen Jorge Martin of the team Pramac to replace Enea Bastianini. Martin, who had been informed of this decision, saw his future taking shape in red Ducati. However, this offer was conditional on acceptance by Marquez to join Pramac, a proposal he firmly rejected during the press conference of the Italian Grand Prix. This refusal forced Ducati to review his plans. By trying to keep both pilots, Ducati would have proposed according to Motorsport a direct competition between them, with the factory seat in 2025 at stake. Despite this, Marquez refused, forcing Ducati to choose between the two.
Ducati, fearing to lose Marquez for the benefit of another manufacturer, finally decided to sign him to join bagnaia. Disappointed by this reversal, Martin left Ducati and signed with Aprilia immediately after the Mugello race.
In his first post-announcement interview, Marquez explained to the SER channel in Spain that he did not think he had the right conditions to compete fairly with Martin in 2024: if you have to win on the track you have to have the same weapons, and now I don't have them anymore ". He also stressed that its competitiveness was not enough to compensate for the technological gap.
Marc Marquez: “ if I'm at Ducati, it's thanks to Gigi Dall'Igna »
Marquez expressed his gratitude to Gigi Dall'Igna, General Manager of Ducati, for his support: “ if I'm at Ducati, it's thanks to Gigi ". He added that his performance on the bike GP23 convinced the engineers to Ducati, weighing heavily in the balance.
Despite a rapid adaptation to the Desmosedici, Marquez has not yet taken advantage of this Ducati to relaunch its track record of 59 victories since 2021. His objectives for 2025 are clear: win Grands Prix and aim for the title, while avoiding the obsession with victory at all costs, which can lead to numerous accidents: “ one of the things I learned is not to obsess, because if you only want to win, there will be a lot of accidents » he recalled in the light of his experience.
With this new alliance, Ducati hopes to strengthen its dominance in MotoGP while managing the challenges of integrating two high-level champions into the same team. This decision could well mark the start of a new era for MotoGP, with Marquez et bagnaia ready to write a new chapter in the history of this sport.
