2024 was awaited with great anticipation, many contracts are expiring and, if someone has signed the renewal, many others are waiting to know what they will do in 2025. Among these there is Marc Marquez, who will have to decide whether to continue with the team Gresini or take other roads. The eight-time world champion is the object of desire of the official Ducati team, but we will have to wait a little longer before knowing the final decision.
The Gresini Racing team, however, does not stand idly by. The team captained by Nadia Padovani finds itself in third position in the championship with the driver from Cervera, who still lacks success but who has shown an incredibly rapid adaptation to the Desmosedici GP23. Motorsport.com spoke exclusively with Michele Masini, Gresini Racing team manager, to get an idea of the Faenza team’s plans. Not just Marc… Alex is also involved in the rider market. The objective of the independent Ducati team is to remain as it is, but it does not hide the fact that it has different plans to remain ready in any situation.
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Marc Fleury
If a year ago they had told you that Gresini would have an exceptional line-up like the current one, how would you have reacted?
“I’ll open the conversation with Marc. It was he who chose us, so he gave us a lot of trust which we now try to repay in the best way possible with a lot of responsibility. However, I would also like to give a medal to Gresini Racing. We started in 2022 and achieved results with all the riders we had, which are four. We started with Enea Bastianini, we led Fabio Di Giannantonio to victory. This year Alex Marquez has some more difficulties from a technical point of view, but we have achieved a lot of results and we know that he will be able to give us a lot of satisfaction. With Marc we are already having excellent results.”
“Alex’s choice, and consequently Marc’s which will have been influenced, I think was partly thanks to us. If we hadn’t built a team like this between 2021 and 2022, with Ducati, with all this desire and results, it would never have brought us what we have today inside the garage. At the moment they have all been choices that have paid off for us and are paying off.”
These choices over time are proving you right. Is there also a particular synergy created within the box? Net of the degree of kinship of the two teammates…
“Our added value this year is to leverage their relationship. We meet at the end of the session with the two of them and their respective crew chiefs. It doesn’t happen often, maybe only in difficult moments, because the boxmate is the first rival. They push each other.”
Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Marc Fleury
Alex also has more experience than Marc with the Ducati, even if he is having more difficulty with the GP23…
“For all the riders who have the GP23, the approach has been different, a little more tiring because it is a bike with great potential, but it is very sensitive to fine-tune. Alex, like the other riders, also came from different sensations. Where he was very strong, now he feels different things, so we have to try to get closer. We will have to try to bring out the Alex from Jerez in all the races.”
Paradoxically, Marc has an easier time because he has never ridden the Ducati until now…
“He has a completely different experience, he is an eight-time world champion. But he is the only rider who rode another bike, so it was a first approach for him. It was the first Ducati he met. His story of adaptation to the bike, settings and everything else is quite different.”
In light of this technical and human situation, is the 2025 goal to keep both Alex and Marc? The pilot market is already in turmoil…
“Exactly, let’s say that there is no denying that it is not our plan A…
Do you have other plans? B? C?
“You always have to have plans and they will always be there. It is clear that this is a situation that will have a chain reaction. The top riders will move first and then the rest of the grid.”
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Not only the rider market, but also teams and motorbikes. Will the goal also be to have at least one of the two official Ducatis in 2025?
“We also have a contract with Ducati for 2025. We are collaborating very intensely and very well. The relationship grows, because this is the third year of collaboration. Gresini Racing has always had the aspiration to become the reference team of a manufacturer in the future, I don’t know if soon or further down the line. We have a lot of experience behind us and obviously having the factory bike is the natural evolution of a path.
Speaking of evolutions in the route and officials: if a proposal arrived, would you feel ready to take on this role but in an official team despite having to leave the Gresini family?
“Honestly, we are so immersed in this year that I have never thought about it. This year, in my opinion, is key, because never before have we had such a great opportunity to grow. We try to understand, especially from Marc, everything that goes into seeing a champion like him on the track. It’s very particular, there’s a different attention to every detail, there’s a fairly strong need compared to other riders, without belittling the others. It’s a year that we want to enjoy until the end without thinking about what we’ll do next year. It’s clear that the expectations for results are enormous, but we’re really enjoying it! So I’m thinking about 2024.”
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