Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez’s championship triumph at Ducati has, rather strangely, reignited talk that he could return to Honda. And his former boss Alberto Puig has addressed that renewed speculation.
Marquez left a declining Honda squad so that he could win again. Last Sunday, six years on from his previous title, he added his name to the Tower of Champions once more.
When Marquez departed for Gresini at the end of 2023, neither party ruled out a reunion. Honda’s third-place finish with Joan Mir at Motegi was the factory team’s biggest step yet on the slow road back to the top.
Luigi Dall’Igna is ‘savouring’ his time with Marquez, because ‘who knows what will happen’ in the future? The Spaniard’s contract with the Borgo Panigale squad expires at the end of 2026.
Alberto Puig says Honda must consider Marc Marquez’s age amid reunion talk
In an interview with AS, Puig ‘smiled’ at the idea of Marquez winning a 10th Grand Prix title at Ducati next year and then rejoining Honda. He was then asked if ‘that possibility was viable’.
On paper, it would be a ‘dream’ scenario for the most successful team on the grid. But Puig is also aware that Marquez, already the second-oldest rider on the grid, will be 34 by the time the 2027 season starts.
They can’t make the move blindly, even if it would be ‘very special’ and ‘beautiful’. Honda are also interested in Fabio Quartararo, so Mir and Luca Marini are clearly under some pressure.
Puig said: “Our bike will definitely work, but what you’re asking would be a dream, but you have to take into account the age, and many other factors. That would be something very special again.
- READ MORE: How ’emotional’ Honda staff privately reacted to Marc Marquez winning his seventh MotoGP title
“Do all this and go back to the roots again? Thinking about that now is crazy, but I don’t rule it out, because the concept is beautiful, but it’s hard to imagine that now.”
Based on an interview this week, Marquez is of a mind to stay at Ducati for now. There’s no sign that he’s thinking about retirement just yet.
Alberto Puig’s verdict on Marc Marquez’s ‘incredible’ title win
Puig says that Marquez faced a ‘terrifying’ challenge after undergoing four arm surgeries in two years and returning to an underperforming bike. Leaving Honda, ‘the brand of his life’, may have been the most difficult decision of all.
His achievement this year cements his status as ‘one of the greatest’ to ride a motorcycle. With 25 wins from 34 starts, he’s been a class above the rest of the field.
Former teammate Dani Pedrosa says Marquez has changed since his peak at Honda, no longer taking as many risks as he did when he was a ‘young man’.
Puig said: “This return to the title is incredible, given how the whole process went, everything that happened with the accident, the surgeries, the lack of performance from the bike, which didn’t help at all, leaving the brand of his life to go to a second-tier team, not a factory team, to pursue what he wanted. And he achieved it.
“For me, it’s one of the great milestones in the history of the sport. To go five years without winning in such a complicated sport, to let time pass, to get older, and to be fit again, to have a good bike, and to win again is terrifying. He’s worthy of admiration and deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest.”
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