Could Marc Marquez be about to trade his last Honda for the newest Ducati?
Could a new Ducati be on its way to Marc Marquez’s fleet of training bikes?
A recent training session for Marc Marquez between MotoGP rounds coincided with the launch of Ducati’s newest motorcycle.
Marquez, an avid motocrosser and general fan of dirt bikes, was out training on one of the last reminders of his successful period with Honda: a CRF450R.
The Ducati Lenovo Team rider swapped out his CBR600RR training bike this year for a Ducati Panigale V2 S which he has ridden repeatedly at the Aspar Circuit in the first months of 2025. His brother and current MotoGP points leader, Alex Marquez, is reportedly also set to soon receive a Panigale V2 S.
The result of that switch for Marc Marquez, though, is that the CRF450R is the only remaining Honda motorcycle that he uses for training.
But his recent session on it could prove to be one of the last, as Ducati yesterday launched its newest motorcycle: the Desmo450 MX.
It’s not a bike that has not been seen before – in fact it’s been racing since last year, when Alessandro Lupino won the Italian Motocross Prestige MX1 series on it – but it is one that is yet to enter dealerships.
Ducati announced that the bike will begin arriving in European dealerships in June 2025, and Marquez’s status as a factory Ducati rider must surely give him the possibility of getting a bike if he wants one.
Ducati’s beginning in motocross has been slightly mixed, with the Desmo450 MX obtaining strong top-10 results courtesy of Mattia Guadagnini and Jeremy Seewer in the opening three rounds of the 2025 MXGP World Championship; but, on the other hand, Guadagnini recently announced that he will miss several races through injury, as he fractured six broken ribs while training for this weekend’s race in the deep sand of Riola Sardo in Sardinia.
Ducati also recently revealed the 250cc version of its Desmo MX, with the Desmo250 MX taking a third-place finish on debut in the Italian Motocross Prestige MX2 championship with the aforementioned Lupino, who had been 10 years without racing a 250cc four-stroke bike.
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
