Marco Bezzecchi
Ducati may already be on the hunt for a new rider line-up heading into the 2026 MotoGP season. They know how important it is to plan ahead.
Currently, they have no contracted riders beyond the end of next season. The MotoGP rider market is expected to become quite chaotic.
Ducati’s advert to potential hires is pretty strong, though. They’ve had the best bike for quite some time, and they have the exceptional Luigi Dall’Igna.
Marc Marquez has proven that they have the potential to dominate, and whoever joins him or takes his role has a lot to look forward to.
Where does Marc Marquez’s 2025 rank among the best seasons by a rider in MotoGP history?
Marquez won’t be ‘satisfied’ beating Valentino Rossi’s records and still has an incredible desire within him to win races. That isn’t likely to fade any time soon.
According to his ex-mechanic, a Marquez return to Honda would be ‘very difficult’, which means that for 2027, it’s more likely that half of Ducati’s line-up remains the same, instead of a complete overhaul.
READ MORE: Davide Tardozzi realised Marc Marquez is a ‘phenomenon’ when he did something ‘99%’ of riders can’t
Pedro Acosta is ‘clearly’ the best option to be Marc Marquez’s teammate in 2027
Ducati may not be able to afford a Marquez extension, and it’s something that could end up being a roadblock in their negotiations.
Recently, the Italian outfit have been linked with KTM superstar Pedro Acosta, who seems highly likely to switch manufacturers over the next 12 months.
However, MotoGP fans find Acosta’s Ducati links ‘hard to believe’ and are unsure whether Ducati would drop a champion for someone with no victories.
Finish the sentence: In 2027, Pedro Acosta will ride for…
But, he does come with a lot of upside. Young and hungry, Peter Bom’s recent summary of the Spaniard shows why he would be the perfect candidate to keep an ageing Marquez on his toes.
“You earlier said in this podcast, right? They’re all cocky,” he said on the Oxley Bom Podcast. “Some of them show it more. He’s clearly a cocky teenager. As long as you are fast and do interesting stuff, I don’t mind.
“You can make me feel old, no problem. I love hearing them, because in between, he doesn’t always find the right word, which can also be funny.
“He says interesting things, but struggles to find the right word and making the logic sentence of it, but in the end he says interesting things.”
READ MORE: Pedro Acosta has now ‘signed’ his 2027 MotoGP contract, ‘he’s already locked in’
Why would Ducati take a gamble on Pedro Acosta for 2027?
Acosta has the sort of talent which is seen incredibly rarely, even in the premier class. The argument that he hasn’t won a race yet is almost null and void.
He’s on a KTM bike which has been underdeveloped and has struggled for some time. At times, the way he has defended on the RC16 has been exemplary.
Honda have ‘already spoken’ to Marquez and Acosta, and there might even be the potential for them to pair up at the Japanese manufacturer, instead.
But it feels like both are geared and ready to win. It’s hard to tell whether Honda would give them the best chance of that from day one in 2027.
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