If Marc Márquez made his commitment to Ducati, much is due to the work and merit of Gigi Dall’Igna, and the General Manager is precisely one of the key players in accepting the manufacturer’s invitation. Márquez also recalled saying no to possible talks and invitations from the manufacturer in the past.
Speaking to Cadena SER, the future factory team rider spoke about his relationship with the manager, for whom he only had words of affection: ‘With Gigi we have always had a very direct and sincere relationship, and I am at Ducati because by Gigi Dall’Igna. He’s the engineer who made everything he touched win’.
Márquez then recalled one of the topics he has been talking about with the Italian, and what was conveyed to him with a thought on the future of the Desmosedici: ‘One of the phrases I say to him when we start talking is: «For me, the most important of the days 25 and 26 is that you’re still on Ducati, right? Because if not, we don’t even need to sit down». Why? Because it’s the Corse department. When we are already part of the Ducati family, we feel the colors, but we cannot do it before. You sit down afterwards, not before getting in, and then you look at the sporting point of view and the performance of the bike and I have had a very direct relationship with it. According to him, they were guided only by what they saw on the track, with progression and the ability to improve in the future’.
Regarding whether he would have stayed with the Borgo Panigale manufacturer if Dall’Igna had not continued, given the (long-standing) rumors pointing to his departure, Márquez clarified, recalling contacts that already existed in the past:
– It depends. Afterwards, many other things would have been taken into account. Maybe I would have asked him: «Where are you going?» Gigi has been very important, the orchestra conductor is always present, and in 2017 and 2018 I had contacts and we were always very direct. During those years, I told them not to make me offers because I was doing well at Honda and I didn’t want to play the game of seeing if one gave me more than the other. When I have something clear, I go after what I feel and what I felt was being on the Ducati.