Marc Marquez’s old crew chief would ‘welcome’ him back to Honda in 2027

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Marc Marquez is inevitably being linked with a return to Honda as his Ducati MotoGP contract approaches its expiry. Marquez’s deal runs out in a year’s time, which puts him on the market.

The expectation is that Marquez will sign a two-year extension to stay with the dominant Ducati squad. But until that confirmation arrives, many Honda fans will hold out hope of a fairytale reunion.

Publicly, Marquez says no team can guarantee that they will have the best bike under the new regulations. He has previously said, with certainty, that Honda will return to the top.

The Japanese giants have moved up into Rank C of the concessions system, tangible evidence of their progress. They won their first race post-Marquez at Le Mans through LCR’s Johann Zarco and scored four podiums in total over the course of the year.

‘Wrong to speculate’ – Santi Hernandez reacts to Marc Marquez Honda talk

In an interview with MARCA, Santi Hernandez, who was Marquez’s crew chief at Honda, refused to say whether the world champion should rejoin his old team.

On the face of it, Marquez has little reason to leave Ducati, where he won 11 out of 18 Grands Prix before a season-ending injury. No team has beaten the Borgo Panigale outfit since Yamaha in 2021.

Of course, Marquez would be ‘welcome’ if he did seek an ‘exciting’ move back to Honda. Both Joan Mir and Luca Marini are out of contract at the end of 2026.

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“I don’t know,” Hernandez said when the prospect was raised. “Right now, I’m not thinking about that. I think he’s currently in a team where he feels comfortable, where the results are coming, and I’m not considering it.

“It would be wrong to speculate about whether he’ll come back or not. Among other things, because he’s at a different level now, he’s with a different team, things are going well for him, and it would be wrong to think, ‘Yes, now that we’re starting to make a name for ourselves, let’s see if he can come back.’

“If he came back, he’d be welcome, and it would be exciting, of course, but it’s something that doesn’t depend on me, and I’m not the one to say whether he should return or not. He has to focus on what he really has, and what he has right now isn’t going badly for him.”

Marc Marquez would only leave Honda for ‘a nice retirement’, says Marco Melandri

Carlo Pernat has said Honda would pay Marquez a ‘small country’s budget’ to race for them again.

Former MotoGP rider Marco Melandri believes money is the only thing that could tempt Marquez back to Alberto Puig’s team.

However, Marquez sacrificed millions when he terminated his Honda contract at the end of 2023, making clear that winning is his priority. Melandri expects him to retire as a Ducati rider.

“I think Marc will still race for a couple of years and won’t want to change,” he told GPOne. “In fact, I think he’ll end his career in red.

“He knows the environment in Ducati and knows how they work, plus they’re very immediate in meeting his requests.

“The only reason he’d end up returning to Honda would be to secure himself a nice retirement, but I don’t think he needs that. So, I say that Marc will stay with Ducati, even in 2027.”