Marc Márquez had already accumulated so many MotoGP accolades in his decade-long career, but in the last seven days he’s added the biggest rider switch in modern motorcycling history to the list.
The ground always shakes when giants move. Most recently Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo all caused tremors with their team transfers and, eventually, their retirements.
But Márquez’s decision to move from the factory Honda team to satellite Ducati squad Gresini is nothing short of an earthquake, long rumoured though it was.
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Gresini is a much respected and well-run team, but it is a minnow in the modern MotoGP era. Its greatest successes have come in the lightweight and intermediate classes. Excepting Enea Bastianini’s breakout 2022 season, its days as a regular premier-class podium-getter expired almost 20 years ago.
There is no scale on which it measures up to the might of Japanese giant Honda.
And yet it has attracted the services of a six-time MotoGP champion and the greatest talent of his generation.
Of course there is a raw performance argument to be made. Even Gresini’s year-old Ducati bikes are more competitive than Honda’s wayward machines.
But the difference in every other metric is enormous. Stepping down to customer machinery means Márquez is forgoing any say in bike direction, in-season development, a modern bike, a massive technical team, priority treatment — the list goes on.
He’s also copping a massive pay cut, with reported speculation his wage will shrink from as much as €20 million (A$33.4 million) down to as little as €300,000 (A$500,300), a reduction of 98.5 per cent.
And yet everyone is a winner in this unprecedented, almost unimaginable scenario.
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MARC MÁRQUEZ GETS HIS RELEASE
Márquez doesn’t just get a faster, less crash-prone bike, he also gets a fresh start.
This year has been deeply testing for the six-time MotoGP champion, and the bike is undeniably a factor, having put him out of several races through crashes and injuries — likewise for teammate Joan Mir and LCR rider Álex Rins.
But there is also undoubtedly a mental element to his struggles. He admitted some of his early-season incidents were down to him overriding his machinery. His run of five Sunday finishes is thanks to a new safety-first approach, but with the exception of his Japan podium, they’ve been uncharacteristic mid-grid rides worth paltry points.
It’s reduced the injury rate but not the level of frustration about his performance ceiling.
Leaving Honda is the pressure release valve he needs to get back to his best.
“It’s true that it’s been a long time, especially the last four years, that I’m struggling a lot,” he said. “I’m not enjoying [riding].
“I need a change to enjoy it again on the racetrack, because if not, there’s no meaning to continue my racing, to continue my career. What I want is more and more years in my career.
“The first target is try to enjoy it, and for that reason I choose the Gresini team, because it’s a big family. They have the best bike now on the in the grid, and there is my brother there.
“It will be a big change in all the aspects, and what I’m looking for is to enjoy it, smile in the helmet. If I smile, everything will come.”
It will also give him a chance to rebuild some of the confidence he lost this year in particular, having been unable to tame the bike.
“When you’re in a very difficult times, you have some doubts even in yourself,” he said. “I always say that if I’m not enjoying, for me there is no meaning to riding a bike. If you are not enjoying it here, why would you stay here?
“So I decided to do that move to a familiar team because it’s what I feel — come back a little bit to the start, to that atmosphere of a small team, of a familiar team and with a good bike, the bike that now is leading the championship.
“It is a big challenge because [after] 11 years on the same bike it will be not easy to change. But I’m looking always only to enjoy it, to smile again and to have that motivation to come to the circuit.
“I want to enjoy it and I want to have this extra motivation again to come to the circuit and spend the time here.”
MOTOGP GETS ITS STAR BACK AT THE FRONT
Next year Márquez will be riding Ducati’s dominant GP23 machine. While the factory team and Pramac will get an updated bike, many believe Márquez at his best will be good enough to bridge that gap.
He’ll certainly be in the frame for victories, especially early in the year, and will likely be a title contender.
That’s good for MotoGP on several levels.
The first is simple: having more competitors makes for a better championship. Márquez himself as criticised the current era as being a Ducati Cup for the scale of Desmosedici domination; now he can capitalise on that by becoming one of the exclusive eight.
It’s also a great storyline. Márquez’s first manufacturer change, burdened with his status as the best of his generation and the weight of a riding style adapted to a decade of Honda bikes, will be fascinating to watch.
And there’s also a sense that MotoGP needs Márquez to be fighting at the front. The sport was firmly anchored on him in the twilight of the so-called alien era dominated by Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, but then he broke his arm and Honda lost its way.
The premier class has been in a holding pattern ever since, unsure whether it’s time to move on or to cling to the prospect of a comeback.
Finally it’ll get its answer: either the book will be closed or another chapter will be written.
BAGNAIA AND MARTIN GET TO PROVE THEMSELVES
The extension of that lingering question over the sport is that the champions that have come since 2020 have all had to deal with this little nagging asterisk placed on them by some fans that they didn’t need to beat Márquez to get there.
In the case of Francesco Bagnaia at least — and Jorge Martin, who could be the reigning champion next year — we’ll get a straight answer.
If either or both of them beat him to the championship, it’ll massively burnish their legacies in a way that won’t have been available to them — or to Mir or Quartararo — before next season.
And they know it.
“It’s a big challenge for us because it’s the only way we can get compared to Marc, to one of the greatest in history,” Martin said. “I think it will be so interesting to learn from him and to see his data. I’m really looking forward to it.
“I feel like he will be battling for a championship for sure.”
Bagnaia’s response was a little more interesting, perhaps because of his status as the lead rider of Valentino Rossi’s rider academy — and the Rossi-Márquez feud is still recent history.
“I think it’s good for us and good for the sport,” he said, before spending the rest of his contribution in the press conference piling on pressure for the Spaniard to succeed.
“He will feel comfortable, and he will not take too much time to be better and faster than the situation he is in right now.
“He will lead the test [at the end of the season in Valencia], because he will have to for sure try different things to try the time attack with our bike. He will be leading because our bike is adapting to all riding styles, and it’s a very predictable bike.
“Then next year he’ll have a really good bike, because our bike is very competitive. You can brake very hard, as he’s doing already with the Honda. The engine is fast. I don’t know if he’ll be fighting for the championship, but he’ll be in the top five for sure.”
He hasn’t left much room for excuses if the switch doesn’t go to plan.
The games of the 2024 season are already underway.
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HONDA GETS ITS RESET
Unusual though it may sound for the level of tumult the entire Márquez situation has caused for the Japanese marque, it also wins from the situation.
It takes Honda out of the spotlight for at least another season to go about its recovery in relative peace. It means the team isn’t working to Márquez’s deadlines to turn the ship around before he passes his peak. It also frees up considerable budget for development.
“We thought that was the best option for the project,” Márquez said. “I believe that they need time and they need to put all the budget on the bike
“A manufacturer, a brand, they have time. But an athlete, we don’t have a lot of time. If you lose one year, it is one year less that you will have in your career.
“They need to work now in a correct way. I believe that they need to work … to put all the budget there to improve the bike step by step, because from one year another, Honda is Honda, and they can do it.
“It is not easy. I think if they have time, it will be much easier.”
Honda will likely field Joan Mir and Johann Zarco next year — perhaps a little uninspiring for the team’s pedigree but certainly useful for development purposes. There is rumour, however, that several riders are in contact with Asaka over the factory seat, with Miguel Oliveira and Maverick Viñales reportedly among them. Fabio di Giannantonio might even get a look in, the Italian possibly the only loser in the entire situation after losing his seat.
None of them has Márquez’s star power. But maybe that same level of wattage won’t be lost to the team forever.
“It’s not bye-bye,” Márquez said. “It’s see you later — soon or later.
“I wish to cross our futures again in the next years.”
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GRESINI GETS ITS MOMENT IN THE SUN
Obviously Gresini wins in this situation, the small team being catapulted into the very centre of the MotoGP limelight with the sport’s biggest star. Incumbent Alex Márquez will also benefit from riding alongside his brother, something he enjoyed for less than one race weekend in 2020 before being shuffled to LCR for 2021.
With Marc in its line-up, Gresini will become a major player in the sport. Its work will have title-level consequence and it will probably have the chance to win its first MotoGP championship.
The long-term benefits will also be enormous, even if Márquez is contracted for only one year.
The entire team will be able to learn from the Spaniard’s decade of experience at the top of the sport and in what was previously one of the very best factory environments in motorcycle racing. That Márquez will likely be able to bring one or two mechanics with him will turbocharge that development without unstitching the fabric of the team.
Regardless of how long Márquez stays at Faenza, the team will be better for it.
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THE 2025 RIDER MARKET GETS VERY SPICY
Márquez will be a locked-in Gresini rider for a few months into next season. Then he’ll be a free agent on the market for 2025.
His one-year deal puts him back into cycle with most of the rest of the paddock, with at least 18 seats out of contract at the end of next year.
That includes at least two in the KTM stable, including Jack Miller and Augusto Fernández.
Márquez has long been linked to KTM energy drinks giant Red Bull back both. KTM is also fast approaching that stage at which it would be ready to accept a plug-in rider of Márquez’s calibre to take it to the next level.
There’s also speculation that by 2025 the Austrian marque may have convinced MotoGP to grant it an extra two grid slots, thereby facilitating Márquez’s acquisition and the reinstatement of the benched Pol Espargaró without having to move on any of its current line-up.
But it’s not a done deal.
If Márquez were to win the title next year, you would have to assume Ducati will make a major play for him.
Despite the Italian marque’s insistence that it prefers to nurture homegrown talent, surely no self-respecting manufacturer could pass the opportunity to lock in Márquez for the final chapter of his career if he’s already contributing silverware. It’d be unimaginable in any situation that doesn’t feature some sort of political blow-up.
Aprilia would also be making inquiries given Aleix Espargaró has suggested he could hang up the helmet at the end of 2024.
And perhaps that’s the most significant part of Márquez’s decision. It’s not just a matter of one rider contract; it’s a move that will reverberate through the sport for several years still to come.