Ducati announces the signing of Marc Marquez to its factory team

Thus, The Italian team confirms the information reported this Monday by Motorsport.com., in which it turned out that the builder Borgo Panigale changed his mind and decided to opt for the Catalan to the detriment of Jorge Martin. A few hours after the news broke, Aprilia registered the Madrid official in the first stage of the operation, which was finally completed the next day.

“Ducati Corse is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with Marc Marquez for the next two years.. At the end of the current season, where he competes in the Desmosedici GP Gresini Racing MotoGP, the eight-time world champion (31 years old) will join the Ducati Lenovo team together with Francesco Bagnaia and will ride a red Borgo Panigale motorcycle. teams until 2026,” said an official statement published on Tuesday.

This way Marquez will get his way and it will make him wear red. He is 32 years old and has eight world titles under his belt, six of them MotoGP. Having completed just seven races on the Ducati, which is also the previous year’s model (2023), Team driver Gresini is third in the overall standings, 35 points behind leader Martin.

This maneuver is a clear example of the authority that Marquez has in the championship, as in just four days he was able to change his mind. top managers of the Bologna company. At the first moment, his plan to support him and Martin This was done in order to promote the second one to the factory team and to fit the rider from Cervera (Lleida) into Pramak.

However, The Italian leaders could not stand the test thrown at them by the Catalans. last Thursday, when he was more specific than usual: “Pramac is not an option for me”

. Given this strength and the threat of signing a contract with KTM or Aprilia, The management that runs Ducati is afraid of losing its main attraction about a contest whose popularity is growing at a tremendous rate, thanks in part to #93’s good performance since ascending to Desmosedici. Although the details of the agreement between both parties were agreed upon at Mugello.The announcement was delayed over the weekend due to various legal hoops it had to overcome.

A screenshot of Marc Marquez’s Instagram account, in which he announced himself as a factory driver in a T-shirt even before the official announcement.

Photo: Marc Marquez

After an eleven-year period as the image of Honda, with which he won six titles out of a possible seven between 2013 and 2019, Márquez has decided to end his career with the Golden Wing brand and opt out of the final year of his contract that he has left to fulfill (2024)., caused by the ordeal he went through after the Jerez test in 2020 when he broke his arm. What followed were four operations and much confusion due to the uncompetitiveness of a very important prototype, which led to its countless crashes.

A third of the season was enough for the multi-champion to use all his speed, influence and the multiplier effect of his image.and thus convince Claudio Domenicali and Gigi Dall’Igna, CEO and CEO of Ducati respectively, and those who make the most important decisions.

Official photo of Marc Marquez’s statement

Photo: Ducati

Ducati’s solution comes to an end: