Cost-cutting of Ducati salaries puts Jorge Martin future in doubt

Ducati reportedly want to reduce the overall cost of their MotoGP riders’ salaries - meaning Jorge Martin will need to find a new home.

MotoGP’s dominant manufacturer reduced their spending by 50% after Andrea Dovizioso left, and now want to replicate that cost-cutting, Motorsport report.

Factory rider Francesco Bagnaia has signed a new long-term deal - worth up to €10m if he wins the championship - but Ducati will not sanction that sort of money for anybody else.

Bagnaia was paid similarly to Martin and Enea Bastianini until this new deal.

Pramac’s Martin (whose contract expires at the end of this season) has threatened to quit Ducati unless he is promoted to the factory team in 2025.

But a Ducati source told Motorsport: “Salaries have to be in line. Ducati cannot be paying a base of €2m to a rider of a satellite team.”

It was added: “Ducati doesn't want is to commit to paying figures that in one or two years will be difficult to afford.”

Fermin Aldeguer, the Moto2 talent, is expected to arrive at Pramac in 2025.

He will be paid €300,000, the report states.

Aldeguer’s comparatively low salary is evidence of how Ducati intends to control spending in 2025 and beyond.

Martin, in his search for a factory role and the type of contract now enjoyed by Bagnaia, could be forced to look elsewhere as a result.

Even if he were to be offered a factory Ducati bike in ‘25, it would not come with the money paid to Bagnaia.

But Ducati have the best bike on the MotoGP grid, which shows little sign of changing after the season-opener in Qatar.

It means riders - including the likes of Marc Marquez who left his big-money Honda deal to go to Gresini - might sacrifice economics for a competitive machine.