Martin: Beating Marquez in 2024 will make me one of the best in MotoGP

Martin finished runner-up in the 2023 MotoGP title race to factory team Ducati counterpart Francesco Bagnaia, having taken the championship battle down to the wire.

The Pramac rider was the best of the field in the second half of the 2023 season and will start 2024 as the favourite to dethrone Bagnaia.

However, the battle within the Ducati stable in MotoGP will get fiercer this season with the arrival of eight-time grand prix world champion Marc Marquez at Gresini on a year-old bike.

Read more: The key Ducati MotoGP figure stepping aside when it may need him most

Martin views Marquez’s arrival at Ducati as “one more incentive” and a “very good opportunity” as a rider to boost his stature in the MotoGP history books.

“The goal for 2024 is to reach Valencia not with 14 points [to the leader], but with enough margin to be able to enjoy it,” Martin said during the premiere of a DAZN documentary about him last month.

“I think it will be a very long season, we will not have to make mistakes, but it is clear that we have one more incentive, which is Marc with the Ducati.

"It will be very interesting. For me, I think it's a very good opportunity, because at the end I have the opportunity to beat one of the best in history, or the best.

“Then, if I manage to beat him, I will consider myself as one of the best riders in history too.”

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Had Martin won the championship, he would have been automatically promoted to the factory Ducati squad alongside Bagnaia for 2024.

Martin revealed he had two black race suits ready for the post-season test in Valencia in case his promotion came to pass, but says “I don’t care anymore” about this.

“I don't know if I can say this, but on Sunday in Valencia I already had two black overalls ready in case on Monday I got on another bike,” he added.

“But well, it didn't come out and I don't care anymore. I fought to be champion, I was very close to Pecco and I did it for Pramac.

“I'm proud to continue and proud of them, because in the end, if I moved, I wouldn't be back with my team either, so I think they deserve to fight for another world championship and they deserve to get it.”