Alex Marquez: ‘I hope Dall’Igna takes a holiday!’

Aware that he will again be on a year-old Desmosedici at Gresini in 2025, Alex Marquez joked that he hopes Ducati Corse general manager Gigi Dall’Igna “takes some holidays until the end of the season!”

That’s because, although the GP22 given to Gresini and VR46 was able to win races last year, the gap between the satellite GP23s and factory-spec GP24s is much bigger this season.

Alex’s brother Marc is currently the top GP23 in the world championship, behind GP24 riders Jorge Martin, Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini.

While the eight-time world champion is yet to win a race, Marco Bezzecchi (3) and Fabio di Giannantonio (1) took victories on the GP22 last season, when Alex also won a pair of Sprint races.

The satellite GP23s are also said to be based on the early 2023 factory machines. That means they are an older spec compared to the satellite GP22s, which were taken from the end of the previous season.

“It's the first year that we saw a step like this, from the old [Ducati] bike to the new [Ducati] one,” Alex Marquez said after Sunday’s Silverstone race.

“So we hope that maybe Dall’Igna takes some holidays now until the end of the season! 

"And that they don't improve a lot so we can be closer next year and be more equal - like last year with the '22 bike, when Bezzecchi was able to win [three] races.”

VR46 rider Bezzecchi, switching to Aprilia next year, is currently just 11th, one place and 31 points behind Alex Marquez in the standings.

Marquez was speaking after a seventh-place finish in the British MotoGP, where he spent the early stages battling the fellow GP23s of brother Marc and especially di Giannantonio, who tapped the back of his seat to invite Alex to follow.

“After 4-5 laps I had a small issue with the front brake that was going down a little bit and at that point I lost the ‘train’ with Marc and the top riders,” Alex  explained.

“Also for that reason [di Giannantonio] overtook me... I didn't see that he [made the hand signal] and I tried to overtake him again!

“But honestly speaking, we did a good race together, although in the last laps he had something more, especially with the [medium] front tyre, whereas I was losing too much in the fast corners.

“I think with the hard front we were able to be better but we needed 3 degrees more in the track and ambient [temperature] to be able to use it.

“But I think we came back after the holidays at a solid level.”

Alex is set to be joined by rookie Fermin Aldeguer at Gresini next season when Marc moves to the official Ducati team.