Marc Marquez: "Logically there is a status… Pecco calls the shots"
"Logically there is a status and the one who calls the shots is Pecco"
Marc Marquez might have six MotoGP titles compared to Francesco Bagnaia’s two but the Spaniard insists Pecco ‘calls the shots’ in terms of their present status at the factory Ducati team.
Marquez explained such a situation is 'logical' for the 'pre-season and first few races' given Bagnaia’s success.
Bagnaia has been Ducati's factory team leader for the past four years, winning 29 grands prix and back-to-back titles. Bagnaia lost out to Pramac's Jorge Martin by just ten points this season, despite eleven GP wins.
Marquez arrives as Bagnaia's new team-mate after three victories, his first in MotoGP since 2021, during a rejuvenating season as a satellite Gresini rider.
It's Marquez's third team change in as many years and, just as when he left Repsol Honda, only mechanic Javi Ortiz has accompanied him from Gresini to Ducati.
While he was joining younger brother Alex in the family atmosphere at Gresini, the #93 is now entering the factory team of the only other multiple MotoGP champion on the grid.
“Now I am in a situation I have never experienced before, which is to arrive in a pit box and, although there is no number one and number two, logically there is a status and the one who calls the shots is Pecco,” Marquez said at a media event for Estrella Galicia 0,0.
“Why? Because Pecco is the one who has given two world titles to Ducati, the one who won eleven races last year and logically, he has to be the one who calls the shots this pre-season and in the first few races.
“From our part, I will try to work to get closer to him because he is the reference, the rider who has made Ducati win the championship again, and who is going very fast.
“If you want to become champion, you have to earn it on the track, but I have the best weapons to fight for the title,” he added.
Marquez was fourth fastest on his factory Ducati debut at the recent Barcelona test, lapping just 0.056s slower than Bagnaia on a prototype version of the GP25.
However, brother Alex was half-a-second clear of them both on the GP24, with Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo in-between.
“On the first day of testing with a new team the goal is to get to know the people, but I also spent almost ninety percent of the day riding the Desmosedici GP25 because on that test day the riders have to choose a way, a direction, in which to develop the bike for next year,” Marquez said.
“The positive thing is that both Pecco and I highlighted the same problems and the same advantages. Obviously from the GP23 to the GP24 bike, we found a step ahead, but the GP25 is different.
“As you put a new bike on the track, it's hardly going to work better from the few first laps than the one that's been racing for a year, but I felt comfortable and that's what gives me confidence.”
The next time Marquez and Bagnaia will ride the GP25 is at February’s official Sepang test.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
