Let nobody be fooled: as a lot because the Italian model desires to publicly disassociate itself from the settlement that can hyperlink Marc Marquez to Gresini, it might be naive to suppose that the Spaniard will likely be using a Desmosedici subsequent season with out approval from Ducati or, at the least, of its most influential faction.
For some years now, a lot of the paddock has recognized that alongside Claudio Domenicali – the Bolognese firm’s CEO – there isn’t a one with extra decision-making energy than Gigi Dall’Igna. It was he who, on the Sunday after the Japanese Grand Prix, made it clear that Marquez had decided to leave Honda to ride a satellite Ducati.
Three days later, Marquez announced that he had parted firm with HRC “by mutual settlement”, the contract that on paper linked them till the tip of 2024. Within the subsequent few days, his signature with Gresini must be made official. There, he’ll as soon as once more share a storage along with his brother Alex, a key participant in Marc’s choice to depart Honda.
Perception: How one Marquez’s Ducati MotoGP move may have inspired another
The six-time champion will land there alone, with out the human group that had surrounded him since his time in Moto2. That is principally as a result of the truth that the Catalan rider rejected the supply to simply accept the two-year contract he had on the desk. Ducati’s worry, understandably, is that the engineers and technicians led by Santi Hernandez might depart with Marquez to go elsewhere after only one 12 months having been capable of research all of the ‘secrets and techniques’ of the perfect weapon on the grid.
Nevertheless, that will find yourself being the least of the issues for the producer that at present dominates the world championship, with three of its bikes within the prime three positions within the total factors desk. Not least as a result of Dall’Igna’s need to find what Marc Marquez is able to doing with one in every of his Desmosedici will doubtless make it tough to proceed managing the riders in such a managed method.
It is comprehensible that many individuals discover it unusual {that a} star of Marquez’s pedigree and stature will likely be competing in 2024 on an ‘{old}’ bike, whereas fellow Ducati newcomer Franco Morbidelli, for instance, will likely be racing on the most recent model. Opposite to what logic may dictate, this distribution of kit performs in favour of the second that Marquez goes by means of.
The Spaniard has bored with being a check and growth rider, and solely desires to fret about going quick on a motorcycle that works. And that’s, likely, what Alex has transmitted to him.
At Gresini Marc Marquez will companion brother Alex, who performed a key function in convincing his subsequent profession transfer
Photograph by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
This 12 months, the youthful Marquez got here to the Ducati with the recent reminiscence of getting spent the earlier three years battling with a Honda, so has a really clear reference level. Utilizing that logic, which he extracts every single day when coaching with him, the youthful of the brothers is aware of completely properly what the older one will likely be able to, no matter whether or not he rides a GP23 or a GP24.
Much more so if we have in mind what occurred two years in the past, when Ducati made a mistake with its engine alternative for 2022, and had to return on the 2021 engine to equip Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller. The worst affected by this had been Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco, who had to make use of the engine specification that Bagnaia and Miller discarded.
Everybody remembers how laborious Enea Bastianini made life within the title race for Ducati’s theoretical chief Bagnaia whereas using a year-old Gresini Ducati in 2022. The actual fact is that each the ‘Beast’ and Bagnaia rode two very related Desmosedici with the identical engine, whereas Martin and Zarco had been left with the newer, however much less aggressive model.
That’s the state of affairs wherein Marquez desires to see himself in 2024 and, like Bastianini, additionally carrying the Gresini swimsuit. “With one distinction: Marc just isn’t Enea, nor can he faux to be,” a supply at Ducati explains.
It’s regular that many individuals discover it unusual {that a} star of Marquez’s pedigree and stature will likely be competing in 2024 on an ‘{old}’ bike, whereas Franco Morbidelli, for instance, will likely be racing on the most recent model
At this level, it stays to be seen how Ducati’s administration will deal with the employees it’ll have, and that is the place the distribution of energy at Borgo Panigale comes into focus. Dall’Igna is on his personal and, like all engineers who’re thought of geniuses, his ego just isn’t small.
That was evident from his phrases at Motegi, the place he harassed that, for him, “the truth that Marc desires to depart Honda to get on a satellite tv for pc Ducati can solely give me satisfaction”. He even revealed confidential conversations with the Tokyo-based firm, which was interested in the engineer’s contractual situation. His vanity now glad, the duty of controlling the riders will likely be left to others.
“If it had been as much as Gigi, along with Marquez, Pecco [Bagnaia], Martin and the others, he would additionally put Fabio [Quartararo] on one in every of his bikes. He simply desires to win, win and win,” they are saying at Ducati which, in flip, understands that the potential for having essentially the most common face of motorcycling couldn’t be underestimated.
The hazard is that the ambition personified by Dall’Igna may flip in opposition to him. Particularly if we take into account that, in six years, the Italian model can go from preventing with the perfect model of Marquez with Andrea Dovizioso because the spearhead of the undertaking, to the Spaniard placing the affect of Ducati into query within the occasion of him celebrating his seventh MotoGP title with a Desmosedici from the earlier season.
It stays to be seen how Ducati would deal with such a scenario, particularly with its sponsors, who, in idea, make investments massive quantities of cash with a view to have the very best mixture. All of this, nevertheless, will likely be of little concern to a rider whose sole intention is to only win once more and show he’s nonetheless the perfect rider on this planet.
Marquez might upset the stability at Ducati by profitable on a year-old bike
Photograph by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images