Although it was something that could have been imagined, Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti silenced everyone by revealing in an interview with the Italian website Moto.it that Marc Márquez will “ride for free” next season for the Gresini team.
If there is one thing that Ducati executives have, it is that for them even sensitive details can be made public. A few weeks ago Gigi Dall’Igna took it upon himself to confirm that Márquez would race with Ducati’s Gresini lineup before the team could announce it, and shortly after he revealed a conversation with Alberto Puig in which he proposed that he sign for Honda. Now it was the sporting director of the Borgo Panigale team who revealed the “salary” of the eight-time world champion.
“I too was convinced that Honda could not give up on Márquez. Marc agreed with the Gresini team after speaking, I believe, with his brother Alex and having evaluated the strength of last year’s bike. From what I understand, he is running basically on a zero contract,” he says, or in other words, “for free.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
When questioned again, he insists: “As far as I know, that’s how it is [gratis], but you should ask the team or the driver himself if he wants to say it. The economic factor is not what guided this choice. We must be proud that he considers the Ducati the best bike to return to being competitive. I don’t deny that he is a bad customer at home because we have our riders competing for the World Championship, Pecco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi. From a certain point of view there was no need to add a further element of competitiveness. It’s an extra complexity to manage, but it’s also an incentive to go further,” Ciabatti said.
Márquez has only signed for one year with Gresini and the option of moving to the official Ducati team in 2025 is not ruled out. “It’s something that, at the moment, I can’t say. It could also be the prelude to continuing on the market and moving to KTM or Aprilia”, he adds.
“In 2025 the contracts of almost all the official riders will expire, except that of Brad Binder. There will be various possibilities and Ducati is one of them. There will be various possibilities and Ducati is one of these, but there are no commitments of any kind type. The market will be open and we’ll see what happens. Marquez’s arrival is not something that happened with a concrete objective for 2025. It’s hard to believe, but it’s something that Marc and Gresini decided, not Ducati.” said the Ducati boss.
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