Marquez and the Japanese manufacturer will end one of the most fruitful alliances in the history of the MotoGP World Championship, which has produced a total of six world titles in eleven seasons (2013-2023). The Spaniard thus puts an end to a saga that has monopolized the media attention of a championship that enters its decisive phase with Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, the two main favorites to win the title, separated by just three points at six Grands Prix from the end.
With this move, Marquez will compete next season with the Faenza team and will have his brother Alex as his neighbor, who evidently played a decisive role in the decision for the #93. Although the Italian team would have preferred to close an agreement that would go beyond 2024, the alliance will have an initial validity of only one season, given that the driver wants to have absolute freedom to consider his future in 2025, when the majority of of contracts.
In principle, the structure of Nadia Padovani, widow of Fausto Gresini, has been assigned two Ducati Desmosedici GP23s with a view to 2024, although no one would be surprised if the Borgo Panigale brand moved in this direction to ensure that a rider of the size of the multiple champion can have the latest version of the prototype, the same with which Pecco Bagnaia, Enea Bastianini, the factory pair of the Bolognese manufacturer, and Jorge Martin and Franco Morbidelli will race with the colors of Prima Pramac Racing.
Motorsport.com understands that Marquez, at 31 years old, will face this new stage of his career without the complicity of the team that has accompanied him since his Moto2 days. Despite attempts to bring his technicians with him, the boy from Cervera will arrive at Gresini alone, after Ducati was reluctant to show the guts of the most dominant bike of the moment to engineers who could sign for any competing company in 2025 .
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Despite various reports that have appeared in recent weeks, some of which indicated the Lleida-born rider’s intention to remain at Honda, while others stated that he had already closed the move to Gresini, Marquez was in doubt as to which suit he would wear next season until the last days. In fact, both sides set a Tuesday deadline to unravel a situation that was beginning to look uncomfortable for all parties involved.
In recent weeks the HRC team manager, Alberto Puig, has developed a plan that had no other objective than to try to avoid the exit of Honda’s main testimonial. However, the limited room for maneuver of the manager – who received the green light from the leaders of the Tokyo giant on the recruitment plan only after the Austrian Grand Prix – and the refusal of the most renowned European engineers who had been contacted, played a role a fundamental role in the outcome of the story. In Japan last weekend, it emerged that Honda had decided to do without Shinichi Kokubu as technical director, who had not been present in India since the previous test.
However, the promotion in his place of Shin Sato, another internal member of the Japanese company, proved to be an insufficient incentive to convince Marquez to continue to focus on what had until now been his house, which has bet on him to do the leap into MotoGP in 2013, after being crowned in Moto2 (2012) and with which he has been able to accumulate, to date and in addition to the six crowns in the premier class, a total of 59 victories, 101 podiums and 64 pole positions.
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