Ducati CEO revisits claim that he wouldn’t sign Marc Marquez

Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali has been grilled about his infamous insistence that he wouldn’t sign Marc Marquez.

While Marquez was still tied to his big-money Honda deal, but was crashing frequently and struggling badly, the Ducati boss was first asked about signing him.

“It's not the right thing for us. We have a group of extraordinary riders that we have raised,” Domenicali told Sky in June 2023.

Weeks later Marquez was signed up to the Gresini satellite team and, a year later, Ducati allowed Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi to walk away due to their desire to move the eight-time champion to their factory team.

Domenicali has revisited his major U-turn.

“If we now have Marc with us, it’s because we made a choice that was carefully addressed,” Domenicali told GPOne.

“We did it, also thinking about the overall performance we could achieve.

“Last year, his performance was a great reference. We made our observations and thought it was a good choice.”

Marc Marquez set for COTA MotoGP

The signing of Marquez represented a major pivot away from Ducati’s philosophy which had begun to serve them well.

Francesco Bagnaia was the first of their riders, brought the Ducati structure, to win the MotoGP title in 2022.

Martin, Bezzecchi and Enea Bastianini were other young and promising riders on their books - all left at the same time as Ducati chose Marquez for their 2025 factory team.

But that decision has been partly justified by Marquez’s sensational start to the season.

He has won the first four races across two rounds in Thailand and Argentina.

This weekend, he heads to the Americas Grand Prix which is typically one of his favourites.

“I think Pecco started with two races that weren’t among his favourites,” Domenicali said.

“He finished winter practice with some problems that didn’t depend on him, so we’re not seeing his true potential.

“I’m convinced we’ll see it, starting with the upcoming races, although maybe not in Austin which is a circuit that’s particularly suitable to Marc.

“But I think we’ll see a championship that is different from Qatar.”