MotoGP
Alex Marquez: Ducati ‘makes you feel important’ as a MotoGP rider
Gresini Racing’s Alex Marquez says “you feel important” as a Ducati rider in MotoGP having felt a lack of support from Honda previously.
Lewis Duncan Megan White
Edited: Jan 2, 2024, 2:03 AM
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The 2019 Moto2 champion moved to Gresini Ducati for the 2023 season following a tough two-year stint with LCR Honda in 2021-22, where he failed to replicate his 2020 podium form when he was at the factory HRC squad.
Marquez scored a maiden pole position in MotoGP in the second round in Argentina and would go on to win two sprints, as well as scoring two grand prix podiums.
Asked by Motorsport.com at the end of the 2023 season how he felt as a Ducati rider compared to being at Honda the previous year, he said: “I feel great. And already with the mind on next season.
“These last four, five races after my injury were to work for next year.
“And we tried a few things about set-up that are working. We were quite regularly in the top five, and that’s the objective for next year.
“So, it was a really positive season with a lot of things to improve.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
“We were not really lucky in the first part of the season. But about results, about the speed and how I felt in the box and with Ducati, it’s a really positive season.
“It’s true that when you have a competitive bike, it’s much easier to have a good atmosphere.
“But I felt a little bit alone, like I said last year, in the LCR box with my guys, not with the support of Honda.
“For that reason I finished the season on the limit last year.
“But this year, how Ducati explains everything to you, making all of the analysis to you, you feel important and it’s something that all the riders like.”
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Marquez will continue with Gresini in 2024 on a year-old Ducati package and will be joined by his elder brother Marc Marquez.
The pair were briefly team-mates at the factory Honda squad in 2020 when Alex Marquez made his debut, but only shared a garage for the Spanish GP weekend as Marc Marquez would miss the rest of the season with a badly broken arm suffered in that race.
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