Rumours of Repsol Honda Team rider and multi-time former world champion Marc Marquez moving to Ducati have grown louder over the past few days.
With the 14th round of 20 for the 2023 MotoGP World Championship season landing at Motegi in Japan this weekend, it could be the talk of the Japanese pits, at the home of Honda, that MotoGP legend Marquez might be joining his brother Alex on the Gresini Ducati team for 2024.
When the rumours first started circulating in August about the eight-time GP champion moving to Ducati, it seemed a fantasy scenario, but also a very real possibility.
Would the strongest rider of the past decade move across the paddock and ride the best current motorcycle on the MotoGP grid?
However, all the factors, like his relationship with Honda and their six MotoGP titles won together, a big salary, and most importantly a contract already in place through 2024, surely makes one think that he would stay put despite the poor results on what many believe is a poorly-performing bike.
Surprisingly, however, instead of denying the rumours, Marquez has fuelled them.
On one side of the argument, he stressed the importance of working together as a team on the development of the new 2024 bike, and on the other he continued to buy himself time for other options to be worked out.
After testing the new 2024 development bike after the previous round at Misano, in Italy, and making it clear that he was not impressed, the Spaniard stated that he had three options in front of him for 2024 and beyond.
He also said he would communicate his decision between the Indian and the Japanese GP. That didn’t happen. So we expected that he would make an announcement at Motegi in favour of staying with Honda.
That hasn’t happened yet either, with Márquez saying: “I will not announce my choice in Motegi, because I will have to be 100 percent focused on the track.”
That statement could mean he’s leaning toward the Gresini Racing team in 2024, where he would join his brother Alex. If he was 100 percent sure and planned to stay at Honda, Motegi would have been the ideal place to put all the rumours aside at Honda’s home Grand Prix at a track that it owns.
If Marquez decides to move over to Gresini, he will have to negotiate a way out of his contract with Honda.
Nobody knows what his plans are, but according to the Spanish press, and third option could be an even more bizarre scenario: Marquez would ask to be allowed to transfer to Gresini Racing without penalty in exchange for his return to Honda in 2025. Of course, meanwhile the Japanese manufacturer would have to make a competitive bike.
“In the end, only results count,” Marquez has often emphasised. At the age of 30, he wants to return to winning, no matter what.
“For me there is no meaning to being in MotoGP for so many years if there are not the conditions to fight at least for the top five or top seven positions, because otherwise as a rider I don’t have fun,” said Marquez.
“All athletes enjoy when they are in the front. In this moment I’m still the fastest Honda rider, so I try to keep the motivation in this way, but for the future I really hope to fight for the top five to top seven positions.”
Photo courtesy Honda
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