By choosing Marc Márquez for their factory team, Ducati lost the chance to keep Jorge Martín in their ranks in MotoGP. The current championship leader reiterated that he wanted to be in an official team in 2025, whether with the Borgo Panigale manufacturer or not, and confirmed his determination by moving to Aprilia.
On the other hand, Márquez was not open to joining Pramac, despite having conditions identical to the factory team. Ricard Jové believes that the public refusal of the eight-time world champion is what ultimately triggered Ducati’s decisions after the Italian GP, as he said to Dura La Vita:
– In some way, Pramac was interested in promoting their rider too, and I think Pramac was interested in having Marc Márquez. When Marc broke everything publicly and said that Pramac was not an option – that’s when everything got triggered. That’s when the entire initial plan of keeping at least two of the three riders on the list, the two theoretically most valued, ended. And they ended up losing two and keeping one.
Some argue that Ducati made the right choice by opting for Márquez, but there are also figures who criticize what they consider to be a lack of respect towards Martín – who missed the promotion in 2023, 2024, and now 2025.
Without delving too deeply, Jové acknowledges that there are both good and bad aspects to the decision: ‘I don’t want to get into that matter. I fully understand Ducati’s decision because Marc Márquez is not only fast but also a great product. But I will also say that it seems they did very poorly with Jorge Martín and how they handled the situation, provoking Jorge… […] When he understood that the spot wasn’t going to him, he didn’t want to wait: ‘I’m leaving because I have a place.’ In that case, I have to say I really thought it was going to be KTM. It ended up being Aprilia; I suppose his great friend, Aleix Espargaró, had a lot to say to convince him’.