Marc Marquez reveals why he wouldn’t have beaten Jorge Martin last year on a factory Ducati

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Marc Marquez is poised to win the world championship in his second year on a Ducati bike. Having made the step up to factory machinery, he’s been almost invincible.

When Marquez left Honda to join Gresini, he accepted a year-old GP23 bike. The plan was always to find a way to the dominant Ducati factory squad.

He wasn’t able to compete for the title straight away, with Pramac’s Jorge Martin going up against official team rider Francesco Bagnaia for the second straight year. Martin eventually prevailed by just 10 points.

Marquez finished third in the standings, a factor in the championship battle without being an active participant. He won three Grands Prix and scored 10 podiums, which left him just over 100 points adrift of the top two.

Marc Marquez doubts he could have won the 2024 MotoGP title

In an interview with AS before his potential coronation at the Japanese Grand Prix, Marquez was asked whether he could have won last year’s title on the same GP24 as Martin and Bagnaia. Had he done so, he’d now be gunning for a record eighth premier-class crown.

But Marquez doubts he could have beaten the pair, who were both experienced Ducati riders. He needed time to adjust to the Desmosedici motorcycle after spending his first 11 seasons at Honda.

“I’m going to tell you no,” he said. “I would have been closer, but you never know if I’d become a champion. It was my first year with Ducati. I wouldn’t have been a champion.”

The 2024 season was only the second time Marquez completed the full calendar and failed to win the championship, after 2015.

Neither Martin nor Bagnaia have been able to challenge this season. The former has missed most of the year so far through injury, whereas the latter has lost his way on the GP25.

Jorge Lorenzo says Ducati knew something about Jorge Martin that the MotoGP world didn’t

Midway through Martin’s championship-winning campaign, Ducati took the controversial decision to promote Marquez to the seat alongside Bagnaia instead. That meant they lost the Pramac star, who defected to Aprilia.

But Jorge Lorenzo points out that Luigi Dall’Igna could compare Martin’s data to Marquez. He knew that there was a ‘big difference’ between the two motorcycles.

Enea Bastianini was surprised that Marquez replaced him, rather than Martin, given the respective positions of the two riders. But Ducati have since been completely vindicated.

Martin is hoping to challenge Marquez next year when he’s fully fit and acclimatised at Aprilia, who are now fast enough to chase pole positions and race wins.