Why Ducati has no doubts about Marquez’s future

While some have begun predicting that Marc Marquez’s MotoGP career may be approaching its end, the Ducati rider is once again pushing himself to the limit in order to return in the best possible shape, fulfil the next two years on his contract, and decide on his own terms when to bring his career to a close.

Sporting icons generate a level of attention that exists far beyond the rest of the field, regardless of the discipline. In MotoGP, the gap separating Marquez from the rest of the grid in terms of impact and influence is enormous, with everything that entails.

Since the start of the season, the reigning champion has projected a somewhat different image from the one that led him to dominate once again last year and secure his ninth world title and his seventh in the premier class. The explosive edge that had long defined him appeared slightly toned down, giving way to a more conservative and cerebral rider profile, less aggressive than before.

That inevitably triggered some alarm bells.

Against that backdrop of uncertainty, and in the absence of information, the comments he made immediately after sealing the title echoed loudly: “I honestly don’t feel like getting back on the bike at all. I don’t put the same pressure on myself as before. In the past, once I won the championship, I immediately wanted to get to the next race and destroy everyone again. But my mentality has changed.”

What if, after all the effort required to get back to winning ways, he had simply lost motivation?

While Marquez himself referred to a lack of feeling on the bike, some quickly seized the opportunity to suggest that retirement might not be too far away. Those narratives always attract attention.

It was not until Le Mans, the fifth round of the calendar, that the Spaniard finally admitted he had been racing injured. The revelation came only hours after he produced a stunning lap in qualifying to break the all-time lap record at the legendary French circuit. Yet despite flashes like that, Marquez was not physically well.

Marquez's French GP sprint race allowed him to bring forward a surgery on a bent screw that was causing him to lose strength while riding

Photo by: Marc Fleury

The consequences of the crash he suffered at the start of last year’s Indonesian Grand Prix had dragged him back to the dark place he inhabited for three years. Following the violent impact at Lombok, the metal stabilising his right arm — which underwent four separate operations between July 2020 and June 2022 — had shifted out of position.

While riding the MotoGP bike, one of the screws inserted during a previous surgery in 2019 had bent and was intermittently rubbing against the radial nerve. The result was a sudden and unpredictable loss of strength in his arm. Curiously, the issue never appeared while riding motocross bikes, due to the different riding position, nor while training on production-based sport bikes. He also detected nothing unusual in the gym. “He was lifting the same weight as before on the bench press,” someone close to him told Autosport.

In fact, his obsession with stress-testing the arm led him to carry out almost inhuman exercises, such as completing a stint around the Alcaniz karting circuit on a Ducati Panigale while resting his left arm on the fuel tank and supporting himself exclusively with his right arm.

The entire episode only reinforced one conclusion: Marquez’s motivation remains completely intact to keep racing for as long as his body allows

The crash during the sprint race at Le Mans caused a foot fracture that required surgery. Marquez used that situation to bring forward the operation by eight days that had originally been scheduled for this Monday, after the Catalan Grand Prix — an event he ultimately did not contest.

Pending the medical checks he is due to undergo this week, Autosport understands Ducati already has everything prepared for him to return at Mugello in under 10 days, provided he receives medical clearance. Although the Italian round carries major significance for Ducati, which has planned several activities to celebrate its centenary, there is absolutely no pressure on the Catalan rider to accelerate his recovery timetable.

His health remains the priority, and Ducati’s confidence in Marquez’s commitment is total. The renewal agreement between the rider and the Bologna manufacturer has been signed for months, runs for two additional years until the end of 2028, and has yet to be officially announced only because it remains tied to ongoing negotiations between the teams and the championship promoter. As with any agreement, the deal linking the multiple world champion to Ducati could theoretically be terminated under certain circumstances. And it goes without saying that if a medical condition ever prevented Marquez from fighting for the objectives he believes should be his, Ducati would never force him to continue competing.

But that is not news – it is simply common sense.

Marquez is on his latest injury comeback, having gone through multiple surgeries after his 2020 crash

Photo by: Eric Alonso / Getty Images

“Marc lifted a weight off his shoulders after Jerez. And we did too in Le Mans, after the crash, when he finally explained what was happening to him,” a source within the Ducati team told Autosport.

Following the Spanish Grand Prix, Marquez decided to take action and visit a doctor to examine the shoulder that would unexpectedly “switch off” at random moments. “Before that, I gave myself some time because I genuinely thought maybe the problem was me, that I had some kind of mental block. Now I know that’s not the case,” explained Marquez. 

In doing so, Marquez once again highlighted one of his greatest strengths: his willingness to question himself. It is the same mindset that led him to walk away from the final year of his lucrative Honda contract – worth more than €20million – in order to find out whether he was still capable of being competitive and fight for the world title.

Once the issue had finally been identified and surgery scheduled, Marquez drastically reduced the number of people aware of the situation. “He only told Gigi and Marco [Rigamonti, his crew chief], because they have direct access to his data,” a source within the team explained to Autosport. “That way, they could understand why he was able to push on one lap but not on the next.” Inside the garage, the technicians closest to Marquez went from concern before Le Mans to relief afterwards. In fact, Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi had even planned to visit him at home to assess whether there was genuine reason for concern.

Naturally, after Marquez finally revealed the problem in France, that trip was cancelled – just as any doubts surrounding the intentions of Ducati’s flagship rider disappeared.

If anything, the entire episode only reinforced one conclusion: Marquez’s motivation remains completely intact to keep racing for as long as his body allows and the stopwatch continues to justify it.

All eyes will be on Marquez again if he returns at the Italian GP

Photo by: Marc Fleury