The year 2024 for Marc Marquez was a turning point. He needed to find himself again and to do so he left Honda for a private team (Team Gresini) but with a Ducati, the bike of every rider's dreams.
Everything went according to plan: he won 3 GPs and a Sprint, got on the podium 9 times on Sundays, and most importantly convinced Borgo Panigale to want him on the factory team.
Marquez talked about this at a press conference organized in Madrid by his sponsor Estrella Galicia:
It was time to have a season of smiles and good times because we had four years of crashes, injuries and X-rays, but this has been a year to find myself again, to set realistic goals and achieve them.
Above everything, to find a team that is a great family and a perfect atmosphere for the moment in which I was to find myself again as a rider.
His story with Gresini lasted only a year, and before indulging in a well-deserved vacation, he wore red (literally considering his chosen livery) in the Barcelona tests.
"On the first day of testing with a new team the goal is to get to know the people, but I also spent almost 90 percent of the day riding the Desmosedici GP25 because on that test day the riders have to choose a way, a direction in which to develop the bike for next year," Marc explained.
"The positive thing is that both Pecco and I highlighted the same problems and the same advantages. Obviously from the GP23 to the GP24 we found a step ahead and the GP25 is different.
As you put a new bike on the track, it's hardly going to work better from the first few laps than the one that's been racing for a year, but I felt comfortable and that's what gives me confidence."
Everything was new for Marquez, including not being the leader of the team as in Honda.
"Now I am in a situation I have never experienced before, which is to arrive in a pit box and, although there is no number one and number two, logically there is a status and the one who calls the shots is Pecco - said the Spaniard - Because Pecco is the one who has given two world titles to Ducati, the one who won 11 races last year and logically he has to be the one who calls the shots this pre-season and in the first few races.
From our part, I will try to work to get closer to him because he is the reference, the rider who has made Ducati win the championship again and who is going very fast.
If you want to become champion, you have to earn it on the track, but I have the best weapons to fight for the title."
