The MotoGP World Championship continues to assimilate one of the biggest and most important news of recent times: the arrival of Marc Marquez to the official Ducati team starting from the 2025 season. The last Italian Grand Prix represented the last episode of a saga that it seemed to have a different ending, given that the Borgo Panigale brand had chosen Jorge Martin for that place, as confirmed to the rider himself after Montmelo.
Ducati hoped that Marquez would agree to race with the Desmosedici GP25 but wearing Pramac colours. However, once he arrived at Mugello, the eight-time world champion began to put pressure on Ducati, claiming that he would not race with Paolo Campinoti’s structure, not considering it an option because he would not go “to another team satellite”. The rider from Cervera pulled out all his weapons with his statements and refusing to play for the place with Martin based on the results in the general classification. In the end, he managed to turn the situation around, getting himself chosen as Pecco Bagnaia’s teammate and forcing the Madrilenian to change plans, so he chose Aprilia.
Several people in the paddock are analyzing this movement, which will lead Ducati to have “the best team in its history”, according to Gigi Dall’Igna. The person who spoke out in this sense is Jorge Lorenzo, who knows the Bolognese brand perfectly after his stay in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The five-time world champion believed that his former Honda teammate would have agreed to race in Pramac, therefore he was surprised by this market movement.
“I’m surprised. First of all, amazed by the news of Martin with Aprilia. Then, it was already clear that Ducati would choose Marquez that announcement”, began Lorenzo speaking on the Dazn Spagna program “Paddock Abierto”. “But I’m surprised, I thought Marc would have agreed to race in Pramac with a 2025 bike. But it’s clear that his plan was much more ambitious.”
Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Márquez
“Marc himself asked Gigi Dall’Igna, before signing when he was still at Honda, if he would also stay in 2025 and 2026, because he knew that this would be a transition year. This was his plan, now we found out. He played his cards in the best way,” he continued, speaking about the strategy of the multiple world champion.
“It’s clear that Gigi’s and Ducati’s plan was certainly to keep all three, with Jorge in red and Marc in Pramac. But Marquez didn’t have this plan and played his cards by saying in the media, and I think personally in private, that he wouldn’t go to Pramac, that he wanted to wear red,” he explained.
For Lorenzo, the fact that Ducati does not want to see Marquez beat them with another brand also played a fundamental role: “I think Ducati was afraid, I think the only option to keep Marc was to put him in the official team. This ‘threat’ of ‘if you don’t make me wear red I’ll leave’ has also had an effect in the offices”.
The former rider underlined Marquez’s media role, not at the level of Valentino Rossi’s best era, but to the point of convincing Ducati to make this move: “Off the track, it was clear that, when Marquez returned to fighting for victories, together with the emergence of Pedro Acosta, the MotoGP audience has risen. I won’t tell you that he is now at the levels of Valentino Rossi’s era, but Marc is certainly now, by a distance, the most media-focused rider.”
“This plays an important role: Marc is 32 years old and he can have another 2 or 4 good years left and he can retire as an official Ducati rider. Therefore, I suppose that this aspect had an influence in Borgo Panigale, that is, having Marquez as the man he imagines once he retires, obviously without counting the results he can obtain”, concluded Lorenzo speaking of the marketing implications that this operation will have, beyond the glory that can get on the track.
