The presentation of the official Ducati team, this Monday, avoided the big news within the brand’s universe until question time. Not a mention of the matter within the official event broadcast around the world. The arrival of Marc Márquez to the ranks of Gresini, one of the client teams of the Bologna factory, is however an inevitable issue that will be present throughout the year.
“How did you say? That, yes, this will be ethe year of truth”, joked Pecco Bagnaia, current two-time MotoGP world champion, when asked to put a title on the upcoming season. The idea was from an Italian journalist who wanted to tickle him with the subject. “It’s not even necessary to say which one it is,” he stressed. Seriously, this is what the Turin native had to say about his new brand partner: “I think you always have to look for great stories, and it’s fair that there is a lot of talk about this specifically. The big difference, for me, is that Márquez will have a competitive bike and will be at the top from the beginning. But I try to live it as just another season, a normal year.”
The reality is that expectations are not under normal parameters, they are through the roof. So much so that even the eight-time world champion tried to tone down the soufflé a little at the premiere with his new colors last Saturday. “Expectations are one thing and my way of seeing it is another. My last two years were a nightmare. Bagnaia and Martín will have the same motorcycle, and I cannot pretend to be at the same level as them,” said the Cervera rider. “Many riders will be competitive, not just Marc. The bike he will use, the GP23, is a winner, and without a doubt better than his last year, so we will see how things go,” added the current number one in the championship.
The top managers of Borgo Panigale, who seemed to resist the incorporation of Márquez last year, now use his figure as a source of pride and appeal. “Races are to test the best technologies, to show that you make the best motorcycles. Having a rider like Marc, eight-time world champion, who decides to leave an official contract to get on a private Ducati, is the best campaign in marketing possible, it’s magnificent,” celebrated Claudio Domenicali, CEO of the brand, in statements to this newspaper. The executive assured that they did not want to negotiate with him for a matter of mere diplomacy. He had a current contract with Honda and it didn’t seem right for them to do so, until he broke it off and Gresini gave him the last available grid seat. “The fact that he strongly wanted to get on the Ducati is very positive. He is an eight-time world champion, one of the best drivers in history, and this means a lot to us,” Dall’Igna added.
Although Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini, the two drivers who defend the official colors of the brand, wanted to minimize the impact of Márquez’s arrival, their team leader, former driver Davide Tardozzi, recognized that facing Cervera on practically equal terms He can mark a turning point in the sporting career of his pupils. “They should see it as an opportunity, not a problem. “It is an opportunity to demonstrate all your potential,” he told this newspaper. “Competing against Marc with the same bike will make them grow, we are talking about an eight-time world champion, and beating him can give them another dimension, especially in the mental section,” he added.
For this reason, precisely, there are many who define this season as the year of truth: those who manage to beat Márquez on equal terms can finally demonstrate that the level shown in recent years marked by his competitive absence deserved greater consideration. .