Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez was seen struggling with his Ducati GP26 at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and footage from the team showed his true frustrations.
After retiring from the Thailand GP, the Spaniard was looking to bounce back, having had three weeks off to properly recover his fitness after his injury last year. However, Marquez and Ducati had another difficult weekend.
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The Brazilian Grand Prix saw Aprilia dominate proceedings, with Marco Bezzecchi winning from Jorge Martin. Marquez did win the Sprint race, but could only manage fourth on Sunday as he struggled with his bike.
The GP26 has not been as comfortable for the 33-year-old as he would have expected. Marquez has adopted a very different approach in 2026 as he finds himself changing the bike’s set-up, something he rarely did in 2025 after winning 11 Grands Prix and 14 Sprints.
Marc Marquez called the GP26 a ‘disaster’ after qualifying in Brazil
Track conditions did not help Ducati, as major delays before the Sprint and a shortened race on Sunday hampered them. But the issues were apparent before then, as Marquez crashed in qualifying.
He managed to salvage a front-row spot on the grid, but he was not too impressed with the GP26. In a video from Ducati’s official YouTube channel, he was seen talking to his engineers in parc ferme about how poor his feeling was on the second bike.
“The feeling with the second bike was a disaster… disaster,” he is heard saying. Asked what caused the problem, whether it be the bike or the tyres, he simply replied: “I don’t know.”
He did go on to say: “The feeling with the first bike was impressive,” but it was a different story with the second machine. When he returned to the garage, he was asked how qualifying went, before he shook his head and complained about an issue with the front.
After finishing P4 on Sunday behind VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, whom he beat in the Sprint the day before, he expressed that he had the same issues: “From the start, I felt the same as in qualifying. Diggia is very good at those long corners. He’s always strong,” says Marquez.
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Is Marc Marquez in crisis at Ducati in 2026?
The Sprint race at Goiania proves that Ducati and Marquez can still compete at the front in 2026, but it is clear that the GP26 is lacking the performance on Sunday, with Aprilia looking almost unbeatable.
The Borgo Panigale outfit are slowly starting to concede that the RS-GP is a better bike right now. Luigi Dall’Igna says Marquez’s feeling with the GP26 is ‘sketchy’ and not the same as what he experienced with the GP25.
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Sitting fifth in the standings, 22 points behind Bezzecchi, Danilo Petrucci has scoffed at a ‘crisis’ for Marquez. He instead feels that the 33-year-old has adopted a new approach after his crash and injury in 2025.
But heading into COTA, which is one of Marquez’s strongest tracks on the calendar, he will be under pressure to stay in front. If he cannot, many will believe that Aprilia have dethroned him and Ducati as MotoGP heads to Europe.
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