Ducati signs Marc Marquez from 2025

It’s official: MotoGP superstar Marc Marquez is moving to the Ducati factory team for the upcoming 2025 season and will be the new teammate of reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia. The manufacturer from Borgo Panigale announced the signing of the 31-year-old Spaniard in a press release on Wednesday. Marquez signed a two-year contract until 2026.

Marc Marquez: Back to the top of MotoGP with Ducati via Gresini

Marquez is leaving Gresini Racing after just one season. He only joined the small, traditional Italian racing team in 2024 after prematurely terminating his highly lucrative contract with Repsol Honda last autumn. At Gresini, the eight-time world champion wanted to prove to himself that he still has what it takes to be at the top of MotoGP after four difficult years and numerous injuries at HRC.

This plan worked, and Marquez was already in the top positions from the start of the season in Qatar. After the first third of the season, he is still waiting for his first MotoGP victory since November 2021, but he has already achieved eight podium finishes and one pole position on last year’s Ducati GP23. After the Italian Grand Prix, the Spaniard is in third place in the drivers’ world championship, just 35 points behind world championship leader Jorge Martin.

Marc Marquez wins Ducati duel against Jorge Martin

The Pramac rider is also a good keyword, because Marquez beat him in the fight for the second Ducati place alongside Francesco Bagnaia. At first everything spoke in Jorge Martin’s favor, and on the Thursday before the Italian GP the traditionally well-informed Italian newspaper ‘Gazzetta dello Sport’ announced that his promotion to the red factory team was already a done deal. But things turned out differently, because Marquez did not play along with the Ducati management’s plan. According to the plan, he should have succeeded Martin in the Pramac team and been equipped with the desired factory motorcycle.

But the 31-year-old did not want to switch from Gresini to another Ducati customer team and went on the offensive. “Pramac is not an option for me,” Marquez suddenly declared publicly and then adopted the same strategy as Martin before: He threatened Ducati with the worst possible scenario, a switch to the competition. “Factory team or nothing,” was Marquez’s new demand. In order not to lose him, Ducati was forced to act and gave in to the pressure from the MotoGP superstar. He received confirmation of the factory place from 2025, whereupon Martin drew his conclusions and confirmed his move to Aprilia on the Monday after the Italian GP.

Enea Bastianini: Ducati exit fixed, switch to KTM or GasGas?

This also officially marks the end of the previous holder of the second Ducati factory seat: Enea Bastianini. He also moved from Gresini to Bagnais’ side in 2023, but in the year and a half he has spent in red he has rarely been able to match his previous performances. Bastianini will also most likely leave Ducati now, his manager Carlo Pernat recently announced on Italian radio that he is moving to the Pierer Mobility Group on a factory KTM. This transfer is not yet official, but it should not be long in coming.