Marc Marquez has already made number decision if he wins 2025 MotoGP title
Return of reigning champion Jorge Martin in Qatar has prompted number debate
Reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin makes his return to action this weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix and will do so with the #1 plate on his factory Aprilia.
Winning the world title for the first time with the Pramac Ducati squad last year, what race number Jorge Martin would choose for his title defence was subject of great discussion.
Many believed he would run with the #1 plate as a final kick in the teeth to Ducati, who allowed him to walk away to Aprilia after denying him a step to its factory team for 2025 alongside Pecco Bagnaia.
At Aprilia’s launch event in Milan in January, Martin pulled the covers off an RS-GP decked out with the #1 plate on it.
He takes over from Pecco Bagnaia has having run that number as a reigning champion, but is one of only a handful in the modern era to do so.
Prior to Bagnaia, the last rider to do so was Casey Stoner in 2012, while Jorge Lorenzo did so in 2011.
Stoner ran the number in 2008 after his first world title, while in 2007 Nicky Hayden honoured his 2006 crown by using the #1.
Valentino Rossi, Lorenzo for his second and third titles, Joan Mir, Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez all elected to keep their original numbers.
Martin’s Aprilia debut this weekend at the Qatar GP will be the first time we’ve seen the #1 plate since Bagnaia rode it to victory in last year’s Solidarity GP.
Despite losing the championship lead after crashing out of first in the Americas GP, Marc Marquez remains the favourite to win the title in 2025 for the factory Ducati team.
On Thursday ahead of the Qatar GP, he was asked if the return of Martin had prompted any thoughts in his head to run the #1 in 2026 if he is world champion in MotoGP for a seventh time.
“No, I had the chance to wear the number one for five years, because I won six. So, no, I keep 93,” Marquez replied.
This breaks with tradition for Ducati riders who have won the title in MotoGP, with Stoner, Bagnaia and Martin all choosing #1 for their title defences.
