Ducati confirm Marc Marquez will ride Johann Zarco’s GP23, not Francesco Bagnaia’s or Jorge Martin’s
Marc Marquez will not step onto the Ducati which title rivals Francesco Bagnaia or Jorge Martin fought with in the closing rounds of this year.
Instead, Gresini Racing’s new recruit will receive Johann Zarco’s bike.
Gresini will continue to run year-old spec Ducatis in 2024, while the factory and Pramac teams profit from up-to-date bikes.
"Marc Marquez, like all the other teams that will use the Ducati Desmosedici GP23, will start with the bike with which Johann Zarco finished the year,” Ducati general manager Gigi Dall’Igna was quoted by DAZN.
“On the bikes of Pecco Bagnaia, Jorge Martín and Enea Bastianini we introduced some more evolutions, but they gave us some problems, both in terms of reliability and performance.
"So we do not believe that these evolutions that we introduced are easy to use in private teams.
“So we have preferred not to put certain things on them as is sometimes the case.
“We will strive to give the best of ourselves to all the riders who have Ducati written on the tank.
"In the end, I listen to all the riders in exactly the same way. I have never followed a single rider.
“I consider it a mistake because the important thing is to improve the bike and I am convinced that if the bike has a problem, even if the official rider does not tell me, I am convinced that if they solve the problem the official rider will also be able to be faster on the track.
“So I have always listened to all the riders all my life and I will continue to do so.”
The bike which Marquez will begin his Ducati adventure on will, therefore, lack the updates that Bagnaia and Martin’s machines enjoyed in the final stretch of this year, notably a new start device or fork winglets.
Bagnaia and Martin will move onto updated-spec Desmosedicis.
