Jorge Martin ‘more attached to Ducati than Pramac’; ‘I won’t stay here…’
Jorge Martin admits he is closer to Ducati than Pramac after rumours linking the team with a switch to Yamaha machinery.
Jorge Martin has made no secret of his ambition in MotoGP, which is to join a factory team whether that’s at Ducati or another manufacturer.
That appears to be most likely at Ducati, especially after Fabio Quartararo signed a new two-year deal with Yamaha last week, a brand that had previously been linked to Martin had it lost hold of the 2021 world champion.
But Martin, who was asked about rumours suggesting Pramac could switch to M1 machinery, clarified his position on where he would like to be in 2025.
Martin said: “Well, at the moment I am more attached to Ducati than with Pramac.
“It has been like this for all my MotoGP career. Everybody knows what my priority is.
“Let’s wait because it is still early but I hope to move to a factory team. Even if Pramac changes, I think, I won’t stay here.”
While the likes of Francesco Bagnaia, Brad Binder and Marc Marquez have shown similar out-right speed in race trim as Jorge Martin, the series leader has been more consistent than his rivals.
Martin, winner of the Portuguese MotoGP after finishing third in the sprint at Portimao, has an 18 point lead over Binder heading into this weekend’s round three of the 2024 season.
But despite his sizzling form, it won’t be a foregone conclusion that Martin steps foot on the podium this weekend as the Pramac Ducati rider last tasted podium success at COTA in 2018 (race was not staged in 2020 or 2021) when he won in Moto3.
Fully fit unlike this time last year heading to COTA, Martin is hopeful of being ‘one of the best’: “I’m really happy about the start of the season so far. We are doing a great job. I think our target is to be better than the years before.
“Not only here but I struggled quite a lot last season at this track. The main target is to be better every year. Let’s see.
“It will be a big challenge because there are a lot of strong rivals for this weekend. I’m confident and we are doing a good job.
“I feel in a good physical condition which is really important here.
“Last season I had some fever and with the antibiotics I was struggling quite a lot. I hope to be one of the best.”
