Marco Bezzecchi
Ducati’s engineers have told Marc Marquez that he can switch to their 2024 bike in his quest to improve his results after a difficult start to the 2026 season aboard the GP26.
Marquez has so far struggled to adapt to the newest iteration of the Desmosedici, which has also largely proven to be a problematic beast for his fellow Ducati riders to tame this season. The 33-year-old has yet to get a Grand Prix podium in 2026 and is just fifth in the standings.
While Gresini’s Alex Marquez won the Spanish Grand Prix last Sunday and VR46 ace Fabio Di Giannantonio took his second podium of the season aboard the GP26 at Jerez, works Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia has also not finished a race this term higher than his P9 in Thailand.
Before he won at Jerez, Alex Marquez claimed “all” Ducati riders have the same problems on the GP26, as well, due to how the bike behaves, especially on corner entry. Upon arriving at Jerez, Di Giannantonio said Ducati have “started to lose” some of their bike’s strengths, too.
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Even Bagnaia believes he could win races in 2026 “without any problems” on Ducati’s GP24 rather than the GP26, as well. But while Ducati have told Marquez that it would be possible to return to the GP24 provided that Bagnaia also wanted to, he does not think they should.
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Marquez believes Ducati have started to find ways to improve his feeling with the front end on the GP26 during the in-season Jerez test this Monday. More importantly, Marquez feels his brother’s Spanish GP victory showed the GP24 would not be the solution to their plight.
“I feel a bit more comfortable with the front again, especially in left-hand corners,” Marquez said, via Motorsport Magazin. “These are normally my strengths, but I had problems there in the first few races. The right-hand corners have also improved somewhat. Basically, we haven’t lost our strong points [with the GP26] and have improved our weaknesses a bit.”
Marquez added: “I never really tried the GP24. I only did two runs on it during the Barcelona test [in late 2024] and then switched directly to the GP25. As far as I understand [from] the engineers, I could ride the 2024 bike again. It would just require a mix of different parts. The basic bike is still the same. If you want to go back to a specific configuration, you can.
“Alex was seven seconds faster with the GP26 [in the Spanish GP] this year than he was last year with the GP24. As a racer, you always remember that one bike you were constantly winning with and think, ‘That was fantastic’. But in the meantime, your opponents have closed the gap tenth by tenth. We have to move forward, not backwards.”
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Ducati awarded Gresini star Alex Marquez a works-spec GP26 for the 2026 season after the 29-year-old while using a GP24 finished second to Marc Marquez with the GP25 in the 2025 standings. Marc did not race the GP24 as he went from using a GP23 in 2024 to the GP25.
Alex Marquez has suggested that the GP24 and GP26 only have “small” differences, and he thinks the latest Ducati package has the “good character” of their 2024 bike that he used last year. Alex is the only Ducati rider to have moved directly from the GP24 onto the GP26.
Gresini saw Alex win three Grands Prix with the GP24 in 2025, including his maiden MotoGP Grand Prix win at Jerez last year, whereas Marc won 11 on the GP25 after joining the factory Ducati team. Alex won the 2025 Spanish GP in 40:56.374, compared to 40:48.861 in 2026.
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