In less than a year, Marc Márquez has gone from rethinking his future as an elite athlete to getting the best seat on the MotoGP grid with Ducati, a masterstroke that could well bear the signature of George RR Martin, creator of Game of Thrones. The eight-time world champion has known how to pull all the strings of the paddock in his favor since he chose to leave Honda, the team of his life, to determine if the problem was his or the motorcycle’s. His heart told him that, despite the four years of physical and sporting ordeal, he was still thunder on the asphalt. And he was not wrong.
Once the problems in the humerus were resolved, after four operations in a couple of years since his hard fall in the 2020 Spanish GP, another couple of physical setbacks in 2023 made Márquez hit rock bottom. “On a mental level it is the hardest moment of my sporting career, discounting the injury,” he said from Assen, after having given up competing, sore and tired, in the German and Netherlands grand prix. Although riding a motorcycle was, is and will be his great passion in this life, as well as his usual plan to celebrate his birthday, the Japanese machine had taken him to the edge of the precipice.
‘Sayonara’, Honda
“He doesn’t want to leave, but he is forced to think about it,” sources close to him confessed to EL PAÍS just a year ago. The crashes at Assen and Sachsenring, precisely the next two stops of the World Championship in 2024, began to outline Márquez’s final decision. He had stopped enjoying riding the motorcycle, and deep inside him the notion grew that there was only one escape route in this situation. Cutting with Honda and much more. Sacrificing everything, from his family in the races, the team of engineers and mechanics that accompanied him from his time in Moto2 (some even before), to his status as an official rider, not to mention giving up the best contract in the grill.
“Since he decided to leave Honda, he wanted to get on the best Ducati,” his team now points out. The plan was very clear since he made the decision to say goodbye to the Japanese factory, something that he ended up announcing publicly in October. It soon transpired that he was going to get on a satellite Ducati next year with the Gresini team, where he would be received by the same group of people who recovered the smile and the best version of his brother, Álex. It was the ideal environment to fulfill his main objective this year: to have fun again and, hopefully, feel competitive again.
The best engineer
Gigi Dall’Igna already participated, behind the scenes, in that signing that shook the paddock last year. At that time, at least publicly, all the leaders of the Bologna brand had been throwing up their hands for months. They even questioned the appropriateness of putting the fox inside the chicken coop. The head of Ducati Corse, however, did not want to miss the opportunity to work with the most successful rider on the grid, something he had already tried in 2017, during the Spaniard’s golden years at Honda.
“I’m in Ducati because of Gigi Dall’Igna,” Márquez acknowledged last night in an interview with He Crossbar. His plan was not simply to get on the best bike and, in the long run, reach the best team of the moment, but to work side by side with the technical guru of the premier category. “He is the engineer who has won everything he has touched. One of the phrases I told him when we started talking was: ‘For me, the most important thing about 2025 and 2026 is that you continue at Ducati, because if not, we don’t even need to sit down,’ explained 93.
Last year, as EL PAÍS learned, Honda tried to hire the 57-year-old Italian engineer, their last letter to try to retain the jewel that brought them six titles, 59 victories and 104 podiums in twelve seasons. That desperate offensive did not work, and that ended up convincing Márquez.
The fun is back
In seven races with the Ducati GP23, last year’s prototype, Márquez has not only shown that he has returned to his best version based on results – he has accumulated six podiums and is third in the World Championship table, 35 points behind the leader, Jorge Martín —but has earned the admiration of engineers at Borgo Panigale thanks to what its data reveals. “Marc is a rider with enormous experience, a great champion, and for me it is important to understand the weak points that he detects in our bike, because there is always room for improvement. Receiving comments from him is magnificent,” Dall’Igna pointed out to this newspaper in Montmeló, three weeks ago.
“He has a talent that I have never seen, and he knows how to adapt better than anyone. If something doesn’t go right, he can find a way to get the most out of the bike,” said Frankie Carchedi, his chief mechanic at Team Gresini. His brilliant adaptation has surprised even the most optimistic within the factory. “It’s Marc Márquez, there is no other explanation,” summarized his current coach, after remembering that other great champions, from Valentino Rossi to Jorge Lorenzo, also his next teammate, three-time champion Pecco Bagnaia, took much longer to achieve good results with the Desmosedici. .
Although the reasons for marketing to hire Márquez – his video to announce the signing accumulates 7 million views in 24 hours and is one of the most viewed in the history of the brand’s social networks – the message from the Italian structure is that they have been guided , just because of what has been seen on the track and the capacity for improvement that they see in the future. Dall’Igna defines his Dream Team for 2025 and 2026 as the best team in Ducati history. With 11 titles on the table, it is difficult to refute him.
The final blow
Although Márquez’s game of thrones began to be hatched a year ago, the final execution has been dazzling and impeccable. In less than a week, he has rescued a plan that seemed almost discarded when Martín appeared in Mugello finally feeling like the chosen one. The Madrid native’s main mistake was taking the bond for granted without having wetted the paper with his signature. The 93 had already communicated from the first moment to the Ducati bosses that he did not want to go to another satellite team, and no one had contacted him to inform him of the factory’s initial decision. If he beat the Madrid native at the end of the season, his seat was his. Otherwise, the promoted one would be 89.
Márquez did not accept the proposal, considering that he did not have the same weapons as his rivals, who carry the latest prototype with slight performance improvements. He was publicly forceful about the hypothetical of landing at Pramac, current world team champion. Privately, he conveyed the same idea to the company’s top management. Either he wore red or he went to Aprilia and KTM, the other two factories that were waiting for him. Immediately, the executive realized that they had to choose, as they feared, one of the two candidates after having tried an intermediate solution. Claudio Domenicali, CEO of the company, arrived at the circuit on Saturday and agreed with Dall’Igna and Mauro Grassilli, the team’s sports director, to opt for the eight-time world champion. It took them a day to communicate it to both of them. That’s why, after the race, Martín appeared sad and the Catalan smiled. “I’m calm,” he simply shared regarding his future. In a matter of hours, he had saved his risky bet on red and dealt the final blow.
His deed not only secured him the desired seat, but also forced the departure of the current World Championship leader, bounced, to the competitive but more modest Aprilia. He also dragged the third candidate in the running, Enea Bastianini, to pack his belongings and prepare for his landing in the KTM group. In one fell swoop, the Spaniard had distanced two of his great rivals on the track, who if they had stayed would have had the same weapons, even if the bike had a different color. On Wednesday morning, two and a half hours before the official announcement of his signing, Márquez signed the contract that was worth risking everything for. He had a hard time sleeping a wink, knowing that he was on the verge of completing his strategy.
Now details remain to be polished and, among other things, determine what will happen to the majority of sponsors who have followed him wherever he has gone. Business incompatibilities, or money, stopped caring a long time ago. “He already sacrificed Repsol, which accompanied him all his life, and for a long time his only priority has been sports. He wants to do everything in his power to win again,” they emphasize from his work group. And he’s on his way to getting it. “I had a plan in my head, a strategy, and it is going very well,” confesses the protagonist. He has his sights set on the MotoGP throne, perhaps in 2024, certainly in 2025.
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