“When Marc Marquez said ‘I like the bike’... for me it was a relief!”

Marc Marquez’s happiness with the 2025 Ducati was “a relief” to their senior bosses.

The decision to bring Marquez into the factory Ducati team next season effectively cost them Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini and Marco Bezzecchi, while the Pramac satellite team also left.

It means Ducati’s bet on Marquez next year has high stakes.

"I am not a technician, but the objective of the day was to listen to his first feeling,” Ducati sporting director Mauro Grassilli told Marca at the postseason MotoGP test.

“When he entered the box, the first thing he said was: 'I like the bike'. For me, it was a relief…

"From the beginning, we worked to see him within the team. With the negotiations with his manager, to be able to agree on many things, such as sponsors.

“Seeing the result of work that began so many months ago was a unique emotion. Seeing him on track and seeing him in the box with us was a beautiful emotion.”

Marquez’s first day wearing red was the start of a journey alongside Pecco Bagnaia, the official Ducati team’s star man.

Both equipped with equal machinery, the best bike in MotoGP, Bagnaia and Marquez will both target the championship next year.

It brings extra scrutiny onto how Ducati manage their ambitions.

But, the first day of Bagnaia and Marquez in the same garage passed without incident.

"I saw them talking to each other, I saw that they shared their feelings, that they had the same feelings on the bike,” Grassilli said.

“They are two professionals, it's strange to have to say that we knew it, but it's what we want, we want the two riders together to contribute to the development of the bike and the well-being of the team.

“Then, seeing them talk, on the first day, which was not taken for granted, but seeing them talk, seeing them share things and together, in a very lucid way, have the same thoughts on the bike, has been the first recognition of the work we are starting to do.

"When the two most important people in the team, who are the riders, have the same objective, which is a goal that we are looking for, so I am convinced that without always being easy, it will be a nice experience for next year.”