Marquez says Ducati MotoGP bike adaptation “is finished”

The eight-time grand prix world champion was third fastest overall on Friday at the Spanish Grand Prix having also finished second in the morning session.

Marquez has been consistently quick in 2024, though consistency has eluded him, with the Gresini rider yet to add to his sprint podiums in the main Sunday races.

Speaking after Friday’s practice at Jerez, Marquez believes he is now beyond the adaptation phase of his transition to the Ducati and feels “inside the bike”.

“The good thing is that we can stop talking about adaptation,” he said.

“The adaptation is already finished. So, now it’s time to work on the small details.

“My adaptation to the bike, I feel like I’m already inside the bike.

“As I showed today in FP1, I go out and immediately boom [I was fastest].

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“But it’s true that every race we have small problems or something here, something there, and still we don’t put everything together in one weekend.

“So, let’s see if we can do it in this one, in the next ones, and achieve that first podium. That will be the good target in the next races.”

Marquez added that there was only so much he could do to adapt his “made for the Honda” riding style to the Desmosedici and admits it will be “impossible” to fully change.

“I mean, my riding style is made for the Honda and then I tried to adapt,” he noted.

“The adaptation to the bike was there and now we start to bring the bike to my riding style too.

“And this is something that helps me a lot. It’s the reason why I started to be fast immediately and more consistent. You can adapt a few things but it’s impossible to change you riding style of the last 10 years.”

Marquez’s Americas GP charge was thwarted by a crash caused by a front brake issue, which took him out of the race just as he’d taken the lead two weeks ago.

On Friday at Jerez, his team changed the brake lever he was using and altered the set-up of his brakes to try to rectify the issue.

“I changed the brake lever and then also we changed something in the specification inside the brakes because the team was working super hard together with Ducati to understand what happened in Austin because the problem was super big in the data,” he said.

“It was better. Basically, I came back to the lever I used during all of my career.

“I mean, I started to use another lever last year because I had arm pump problems.

“And then it was a little bit better. It’s not the solution because with that lever you only feel the problem less but the problem is still there.

“Here in this circuit, it’s not a problem because the temperature is not very warm. So, we need to wait to arrive on a warm track.”