Jorge Martín, current leader of the MotoGP world championship and one of the pearls of the Ducati universe, has decided to change scene after the latest failure of the Bologna factory in the negotiations to join the official team and has signed with Aprilia for 2025. “Welcome to the Aprilia family, Jorge,” the Noale brand announced, by surprise, this Monday afternoon. The bizarre conversations that have taken place in the last few hours in Mugello, during the course of the Italian GP, have led to the breaking of the link between the Madrid Pramac driver and the factory that sets the pace in the premier category, with which He has achieved six victories, 18 podiums and a runner-up finish since his arrival in 2021.
Martín’s departure opens the doors of the official Ducati team to Marc Márquez, who has not yet signed his contract, but has very advanced negotiations with the structure led by the current world champion Pecco Bagnaia. The Catalan, who is still looking for his first victory in more than two and a half years on the track, is about to score the most important race of the course in the offices. After having decided to abandon his physical and sporting ordeal at Honda less than a year ago, he will achieve the most coveted seat in the competition, which has accumulated two drivers’ titles and four constructors’ titles since 2020 thanks to overwhelming technical mastery, if nothing goes wrong. now.
Once he has regained his smile and appetite on the bike, and demonstrated his speed on the same machine that was world champion in 2023, Márquez has known how to move better than anyone else in the game of chairs unleashed in the paddock in recent days. Thanks to an unexpected and impeccable move at the home of his next employer, the eight-time champion managed to change the firm decision of Ducati, which on Sunday afternoon in Montmeló, in the previous grand prix, had already informed Martín’s entourage of his choice for dress him in red.
Last Thursday, during the preview of the Italian GP in Mugello, the Madrid native imagined himself already clad in his red leathers and did not hide his satisfaction, biting his tongue after having received the call from Gigi Dall’Igna himself, head of Ducati Corse , advancing the decision. However, it was a verbal agreement. When Márquez read in La Gazzetta dello Sport After the leak of the news on Thursday, he appeared at the official press conference wanting to shake the board and force the hand of the Italian leaders. Sitting next to Bagnaia and Martín, he unceremoniously refused to visit the factory’s main client structure, Pramac, displacing the Madrid native, the current leader of the event, and also the leaders of the brand. Suddenly, the smile of someone who saw his great and hard-worked dream come true at times faded when he heard the order that has ended up hastily breaking his bond with Borgo Panigale.
“The Pramac is not an option for me, I am a man with clear ideas,” replied Márquez, without wanting to go into more details despite the insistence of the journalists posted to the track. In his head, the words of Fonsi Nieto, current performance director of the Ducati client squad, probably still resonated in his head, about that notorious incident with Valentino Rossi in 2015. “He made a mistake, he behaved badly,” he said in his day the ex-pilot. Gino Borsoi, the team’s sports director, also close to the 46, was outraged with Márquez’s attitude at that time.
Overnight, Ducati’s plan A, which intended to place Márquez on the Pramac with an official motorcycle, went down the drain. The fear of losing the eight-time world champion made the brand’s leaders recoil, and they immediately withdrew the offer to Martín despite the notable disrespect to the current World Cup leader. On Saturday, with the arrival of Claudio Domenicali, CEO of the company, to the circuit, Márquez reiterated his preference for wearing red just after signing his sixth consecutive podium (three sprints and three GPs). Martín, hurt, then issued an ultimatum and threatened to leave for another factory immediately, as he finally did, inheriting the official Aprilia left free by his great friend, neighbor and mentor, the veteran Aleix Espargaró.
The leader of the competition could not hide his stress on the track throughout the weekend. He went down on Saturday and then had a couple of rookie mistakes on Sunday that caused him to lose much of his lead at the top of the table. When he got off the bike after losing second place in the last corner, honest as few others were, he acknowledged that the turbulence in the offices had destabilized him on the asphalt. The negotiations of the last two seasons were still fresh in his mind, in which Enea Bastianini took from him a position that he believed he richly deserved, the same one that Marc Márquez has now taken from him.
Martín’s response was to fulfill his threat, take the reins of his future and close the last threads with Aprilia, on Sunday night, to anticipate Ducati’s next statement.
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