In recent weeks, Ducati developed an ideal scenario for the next two years in MotoGP. In the eyes of its executives, this would play well with eight-time world champion Marc Marquez and current standings leader Jorge Martin, whose renewals became a priority once Francesco Bagnaia was secured in March.
The idea was to promote Martin to the factory team, as Bagnaia’s team-mate, and place Marquez at Pramac with factory rider treatment to all intents and purposes. However, the ideologists of that strategy did not count on the reaction of Marquez, who was vehement in his refusal to join Paolo Campinoti’s team.
“Pramac is not an option for me,” he said last Thursday on the eve of the Italian Grand Prix. “It is not because I am a person with very clear ideas, but because I will not leave a satellite team to join another.”
His statement, as expected, did not sit well with Campinoti’s team: “We have survived more than 20 years without Marc, and we will be able to continue without him,” the businessman replied.
Autosport understands that Ducati sounded out both riders on the Wednesday night before Mugello, hours before Gazzetta dello Sport broke the news on Thursday morning that Martin had been chosen to go to the factory squad. Regardless of where the leak came from, what is clear is that Marquez’s forcefulness stirred up an atmosphere that was already sufficiently heated.
At this point, it is necessary to find a solution to solve an equation that seriously jeopardises the objective that the Bologna offices had set out to achieve: to prevent #93 or #89 from reinforcing the competition.
Claudio Domenicali, Ducati’s CEO, seems to have now realised the multiplying power of Marquez at the media level and the scope two such powerful brand images could have. “It never ceases to amaze us”, agree several voices coming out of the official workshop of the team that scored a double at Mugello with Bagnaia last weekend.
Marquez has already shown he can battle with the factory Ducati riders on a year-old bike in 2024
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
A few weeks ago general manager Gigi Dall’Igna, the genius who created the most dominant prototype in the history of the championship, was one of the main supporters of Marquez’s choice but now the tables have turned. Now Domenicali is the great promoter of his arrival, because of the possibilities it offers at a marketing level.
That is without considering the…
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