There were high expectations for Marc Marquez’s debut with the Ducati Gresini team and the eight-time World Champion did not disappoint, placing himself among the fastest riders of the testing day from the first laps.
A promising start for the immense potential that the Catalan rider may express in the upcoming MotoGP season, in which he is already seen by many as the top favorite to win the MotoGP World Championship.
His compatriot Jorge Lorenzo also supports the chances of the Spanish rider, who commented on Marquez’s team change in a conversation with As.
– ‘For him (Marc), at a sports and entertainment level, it’s fantastic. Unfortunately, he had to give up a contract (at Honda) that he never saw and probably will never see again in the history of MotoGP. It won’t be easy, but if I had to bet, I would bet on him to win the championship’.
Facing so many strong opponents won’t be easy for Marc, but Jorge Lorenzo is confident that the 2024 title may be within his reach.
‘I think the fact that he will face riders who already know Ducati and who are younger than him will complicate things a bit’, he admitted.
– ‘If he doesn’t have bad luck, just look at what his brother Alex has done. Although he has made great progress in MotoGP and is close to his brother’s level, he doesn’t have the same magic and talent. If Alex was able to do what he did this year, why shouldn’t Marc be able to win many races?’.
Losing the eight-time world champion will be a difficult blow for Honda, after going through some of the worst years in its history in MotoGP.
– ‘ If we lose patience, we will sink in this situation… we won’t get out of it. It’s necessary to have a lot of patience, with the Japanese philosophy of ‘kaizen’ (the philosophy of work) and gradually put the pieces of the puzzle together to have a competitive rider-bike combination again.
But, at this moment, Ducati has the best bikes and the best riders, so it will be difficult to beat them,’ said the rider from Mallorca.
The rider from Mallorca mentioned that an experienced engineer like Gigi Dall’Igna could be a solution for the Japanese manufacturer: ‘It would certainly be. If Honda had hired Gigi two or three years ago, probably now they would have a better bike and wouldn’t have lost Marquez’.
Recreating what Marc did on the RC213V will be a very difficult mission, but after much speculation about who would take the place of the Spanish rider, the Japanese manufacturer found Luca Marini as his successor.
– ‘I understand the fear of any rider when a top rider and the best on the grid (Marc) decides to terminate his contract to leave Honda’, Jorge commented. ‘I understand the fear, especially of young riders like Fermín Aldeguer, in moving up to a bike like this’.
The 36-year-old rider also seemed quite surprised by the fact that Valentino Rossi supported his brother’s move to HRC, even though he still had a year left on his contract with his team.
– ‘I don’t really know how things are going, because I heard Marco Bezzecchi say that Marini has distanced himself from Valentino and no longer trains at his brother’s ranch. But it’s curious, given the way Valentino ended his relationship with Honda in 2003 and now his brother is joining the brand,’ he concluded.
In fact, Valentino Rossi even posted a story on Instagram with a photo from his time at HRC, as if he wanted to indicate that something was about to happen.
