Alex Marquez teases Pirro: “You said GP23-24 was not a big difference!”

Alex Marquez teased Ducati test rider Michele Pirro over some past comments upon the Italian’s return to the GP23 at this weekend’s Solidarity Barcelona MotoGP.

While Alex’s brother Marc Marquez has won three GPs on the year-old satellite bike, the other GP23 riders have only two podiums between them, often citing front-end issues compared to the previous GP22.

Pirro has spent this year developing the factory GP24, which will win the world championship with either Jorge Martin or Francesco Bagnaia on Sunday. 

But he has been drafted back onto the older bike as an injury replacement for Fabio di Giannantonio at VR46.

“Michele said to me, ‘this bike is pushing a lot the front’,” Alex said on Saturday. 

“I replied, ‘you said it was not a big difference compared 23 and 24!’

“I was joking a bit with him because I saw in many interviews he said it was not a big difference!”

The reason for Pirro’s change of opinion is probably that when the Italian last rode the GP23, over a year ago, it was still fitted with the 2023 rear tyre construction.

"It was good to see the difference between the 23 and 24 bike," Pirro said after finishing the Sprint in 21st, his first MotoGP race of the year. 

"The 23 bike loses in some areas with this [2024] tyre. Maybe in some races it's okay, in others it's more difficult to manage."

Michelin revised its rear tyre for this year. While the latest Ducati GP24 was designed and developed around the characteristics of the new tyre, the step in rear grip looks to have upset the balance of the GP23.

“Michele said to me - and it’s true - that this year they changed the rear tyre,” Marquez confirmed.

“So maybe this bike last year, with last year’s tyre, was better for the front pushing that he's suffering [with now].

"So it's like it is and now he knows the difference exactly.”

Marquez added: “I'm not saying that the GP24 is clearly better [than the GP23]. 

"For sure, in some points it will be slightly worse, because you cannot improve a bike in every area.”

The #73 now has just a few days to wait until he finds out the differences for himself with a debut on the GP24 at Tuesday’s post-race test.

“No expectations,” he insisted of his future machine. “Try to enjoy, try to feel what the 24 bike is doing, try to make the maximum laps and say to Ducati the things that I feel.”

Asked if he thinks the Ducati satellite-factory gap will be smaller than this year, Marquez replied:

“I hope that the 24 is better than the 25! 

"Or like GP22 to GP23, that was really equal. If we are lucky, it will be like this and we will be closer than this year.”

Marquez was speaking after a fifth-place finish in the Barcelona Sprint.

So far this weekend Alex has outpaced his brother in every session bar qualifying, when Alex slumped to eleventh and Marc used a tow behind Francesco Bagnaia for a place on the front row.

“I had a really good feeling in the Sprint. I was even dreaming of fighting for victory,” he said. “Because I was in fourth and if I could overtake Enea and Martin quickly...

“But when the GP24 has nobody in front, no slipstream, at least we can arrive to the brake point close to them. But I had Enea in front, who had the slipstream of Jorge and it was like ‘ciao’.

“I'm quite angry with my qualifying, which was not what we needed," he continued. "They cancelled one lap when I touched a little bit the green and that lap was to be in P6.

“But we were lucky to find the right spaces in the first corners and that will also be the key [on Sunday]. We have a good pace. We have a good feeling. We have  everything, but to overtake is quite difficult here.”

Sunday’s grand prix will also be the last for the Marquez brothers as team-mates with Marc moving to the factory Ducati squad alongside Bagnaia in 2025.

“We know that Gresini is a really big family, then if you add to this that Marc and I are brothers. It was something super nice," Alex  said of this season.

Alex will start the season finale holding tenth in the world championship, five points behind Franco Morbidelli and eight ahead of Aleix Espargaro.