Gresini deliver ominous Marc Marquez prediction - and address his one-year deal

The satellite Ducati team has pulled off the surprise of the MotoGP era by tempting the eight time world champion from Repsol Honda to ride alongside younger brother Alex on year-old Desmosedicis.

“It’s a kind of dream come true,” Gresini’s Commercial & Marketing Director Carlo Merlini told the MotoGP Guru show.

“But first of all, thanks to Marc for his trust in the team, for believing that we can deliver what he needs: A good technical package and I think most of all also a quite familiar environment.

“Thanks to Alex also, he did some good advertising! He promoted and gave us some good publicity!”

“What really made things easier is having Alex in the team and both Marc and Alex share the same manager,” Merlini confirmed. “So talking was easy, dreaming was easy. And then when the planets align in a certain way, it started getting a little bit less dreaming, a little bit more reality.

"And that was a great journey until we announced the signing of Marc [last] Thursday.”

The 59-time MotoGP race winner is expected to make his Gresini debut at next month’s Valencia test, pending approval from Honda.

“There is the last word from HRC. He is under contract with them and HRC had to release Marc. So not all the details of the release have been finalised, but we really hope to see him on our bike in Valencia,” Merlini said.

“That would be good for him to have a first feel with the new bike before the off-season starts, so we really hope the HRC is not going to ban that.”

Either way, Gresini’s goals with Marc Marquez in 2024 are simple: “I think we can be on top of the ranking to fight for the title. Marc can be amongst them to fight for the race [wins] every weekend, then for the title eventually.”

And if that happens, Merlini knows they will also have a strong chance of extending Marquez’s current deal.

“We signed for one year, so Marc will be with the Gresini team for 2024. Of course, our commitment will be to make a move to another team or to another manufacturer the most difficult possible for him!” he said.

“So it will be also up to us to try to [make Marquez] take some time to think that maybe staying with Gresini also for 2025 could be a good idea. So as usual, it depends on how things will go.”

Finally, Merlini couldn’t help but wonder how late team boss Fausto Gresini would feel about his team pulling off the Marc Marquez deal.

“We lost Fausto two years ago and sometimes the mind [wanders] and we ask ourselves, how would he react to having such a great rider in the team?” Merlini said.

“I always like to think that once in a while he can open a window and see how we're doing down here. That's something emotional, but we like to think about it.”