Alex Marquez will wish he’d never accepted a factory bike from Ducati after ‘very lucky’ break

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Alex Marquez will be riding atop a factory Ducati next season after being rewarded by the Borgo Panigale-based outfit for his efforts in the current campaign on the older spec GP24.

Ducati’s decision to supply the Gresini man with a factory bike next season means that there will be four factory bikes from the Italian constructor on the grid next season, with VR46 Racing’s Fabio Di Giannantonio continuing as a factory-backed rider.

However, the move up to the factory bike may come as a curse rather than a blessing for Marquez, following Francesco Bagnaia’s showcase of how tricky his adaptation to the GP25 from the GP24 has been.

Bagnaia has been warned that Ducati’s 2026 bike will barely change, so his woes at the team may continue until he manages to rein in the issues that have plagued him throughout Marc Marquez’s total dominance of the grid atop the same bike.

READ MORE: Some Ducati staff privately think one rider is capable of beating Marc Marquez in a ‘straight fight’

‘No one’s been in a rush’ to express their interest in Ducati’s new bike

There has been a lot of speculation around Bagnaia potentially returning to the GP24 this year, a bike in which he won 18 of the 40 races last season in a fierce title fight with fellow Ducati rider, Jorge Martin.

The MotoGP paddock believes Bagnaia would have been more comfortable, but the Italian rider has remained against the notion due to the bad press that a factory rider opting for the seemingly slower bike, when compared to the championship leader, would bring forth.

Speaking on a recent episode of The Race MotoGP podcast, journalist Simon Patterson revealed how Bagnaia’s performances have brought forth a sense of hesitancy from Ducati riders to step up and take the new bike that is available to them.

“No one’s been in a rush. No one will outright say that they want to ditch the current bike and go to the new one because you don’t say that out loud,” Patterson said. “But, no one’s calling out for it.

“This isn’t like previous years when we’ve got to this point and people have been talking about regretting not taking an option or anything like that. We’ve seen Marco Bezzecchi go through a very similar thing where he’d been offered a new bike.

“He was offered a GP24 and elected to stay with a GP23 and then discovered the 23 wasn’t as good as the 22. So, very similar, but no one is saying it out loud.

“This is not knocking Alex Marquez in any way, but his results have never been this good before, and everyone knows how good the GP24 was. Everyone knows the GP25 isn’t perfect, and I think people have to be looking at his bike right now and thinking he’s got very lucky this year.”

Marquez has cemented himself as the second-best performer on the grid during the current campaign and has been the biggest thorn in his elder brother’s side as the factory Ducati man eyes a seventh MotoGP title.

The fact that he currently sits 93 points ahead of Bagnaia in the championship standings is very telling about the current state of the GP25. Bagnaia could suffer financially if he loses his spot in third, and with Bezzecchi just eight points behind him now, it’s looking highly likely.

READ MORE: Luca Marini explains why Ducati have dominated MotoGP for years and gives his Luigi Dall’Igna verdict

Alex Marquez should follow in Marco Bezzecchi’s footsteps and ask to stick with his current spec of Ducati bike

Alex Marquez is currently in a very similar position to what Bagnaia was in at the end of the 2024 MotoGP season.

Despite the Italian rider having a much more successful campaign that year than Marquez’s current term, winning 11 Grands Prix on his way to second place in the standings, Bagnaia looked electric atop the GP24 and finished just ten points behind Martin for the premier class crown.

Everything unravelled once the GP25 was homologated, and Bagnaia has looked like a shell of his former self. Marquez risks the exact same thing happening to him next season with his new factory bike.

Given Bagnaia’s status as a two-time premier class world champion, there’s no guarantee that Marquez will receive the same amount of patience from Ducati that the Italian has.

Ducati backed out of a commitment to give Aldeguer the factory bike, and they could just as easily reinstate the Murcian native’s initial contract obligation.

Marquez should follow in the footsteps of Bezzecchi in electing to stick with his current spec of bike in order for him to have the best opportunity of mounting a genuine championship challenge from the very first race of the season.