Marc Márquez will be riding for Gresini in the 2024 MotoGP season, having a direct contract with the team rather than Ducati. However, Borgo Panigale’s manufacturer doesn’t see him as a rival to the factory team.
The CEO, Claudio Domenicali, told Marca that the Spaniard will be an asset to other riders aboard the Desmosedici GP: ‘Marc will be an ally because we will have a great advantage in seeing how he rides our bike. I think both Pecco [Bagnaia] and Jorge [Martín] or Marco [Bezzecchi] could improve by observing how Marc rides because we have the philosophy that all data is shared. So, he will surely be very strong’.
The leader has no doubt that Márquez will be among the front runners: ‘If I see the difference he makes compared to other Honda riders, I think he will be very strong next year, so he will surely be a candidate for wins, for the title’.
That said, Domenicali is aware that #93 will be a tough opponent: ‘It’s true that Marc will bother everyone, even within Ducati, that’s for sure. Like Jorge. For Pecco or Enea [Bastianini], they won’t just have Jorge or Bezzecchi, or [Fabio] Di Giannantonio, who is now very strong. They’ll also have Marc. It will be harder to beat him but also more interesting for the fans’.
Although he expects Márquez to create some commotion by being another contender at the front, Ducati’s CEO hopes for clean racing without collisions: ‘It will be complicated, it will stir things up… what we hope for is that the races are fair without crashes. I don’t like too much contact because it’s dangerous. Sometimes, Marc can be a bit aggressive. So was Jorge in the last race. Marc had a very nasty crash. And it was Jorge who touched him in that accident. It was dangerous. There’s a limit in races, and we must pay attention to that limit. It’s important for race direction to keep the riders calm, so when someone exceeds the limit, they are penalized immediately’.