The successful 11-year partnership between MotoGP champion Marc Marquez and Honda is coming to an end. Marquez will ride for Gresini-Ducati in 2024, leaving familiar faces behind but embarking on a season of new opportunities and challenges.
Farewell to a winning partnership: Honda and Marquez part ways.
The 11-year cooperation between Marc Marquez and Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) will come to an early end after the 2023 MotoGP season. Despite the duo achieving impressive success over the years, including six top-tier world championships and a total of 59 victories, they have decided by mutual consent to go their separate ways and terminate the existing contract. They were originally scheduled to continue working together for the entirety of next year. This joint decision was made after intensive deliberations on both sides, with the focus on striving for new horizons and goals.
New challenges: Marquez joins Gresini-Ducati
Marquez is already looking to the future and has committed to a new team for the 2024 MotoGP year: Gresini-Ducati. A decision that was certainly not made overnight and was marked by doubts and deliberations. After all, Marquez had also toyed with the possibility of staying with Honda. But now it is certain: he will join his younger brother Alex at Gresini and make the tracks unsafe on the GP23, the model with which Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin are currently fighting for the world championship title. The machine will be a “last year’s model”, but technical upgrades have not been ruled out by Ducati. So depending on performance, it may well be that Marquez receives additional support.
Old crew stays behind: Marquez goes to Gresini alone
For Marquez, the move to Gresini also means leaving familiar faces behind. According to information from Motorsport.com Spain, the 30-year-old will move to the Italian satellite team alone, as Ducati refused to allow external technicians to see the secrets of the Desmosedici. Santi Hernandez and co, who accompanied Marquez since his Moto2 days, will therefore remain behind and the Spaniard will start with a completely new team at Gresini-Ducati.
Looking back: Golden times with Honda
It is a collaboration that was marked by a decade of dominance. Marquez became the youngest winner in the motorcycle premier class with the Honda RC213V, and over the years he has celebrated many more records and victories. Together, “Marquez and Honda” holds numerous records, including youngest world champion and 64 pole positions, making Marquez the rider with the most starts from the best position in history.
Next steps: What’s in store for Marquez at Gresini-Ducati?
Although Marquez has only signed on for 2024, it will be exciting to see how he settles in at Gresini-Ducati and what new successes he can achieve with the team. It’s an exciting time for MotoGP fans and one to certainly keep an eye on, as Marquez will surely aim to build on his previous successes with his new team.
Conclusion:
Marc Marquez’s move to Gresini-Ducati is without doubt one of the most sensational news in the MotoGP world, and it remains to be seen what new challenges and successes the future holds for the Spaniard. One era is ending and another is beginning, with expectations undoubtedly high for the former World Champion. Will he set new records with Gresini-Ducati? Time will tell.
