MotoGP Throwback Thursday: When Marc Marquez left Honda for satellite Ducati

For me, it was one of those sporting moments where you remember exactly where you were when the news broke. This was the move of all moves. It felt like Marquez was going to remain with Honda forever; such was the strength of their partnership throughout the 2010s. But the move came after four difficult years for Marquez, dealing with injuries, trying to regain his health and riding machinery that was increasingly uncompetitive. Those factors ultimately contributed to his decision to leave the Japanese manufacturer.

Both parties moved on with total respect, and where better for Marquez to go than Ducati? The Bologna marque had the best bike and had dominated the pecking order. What would ultimately serve him well in the long run was a move that would reap its rewards later on. Marquez described Gresini as an opportunity to discover whether he still loved racing, but that was never really in doubt. Instead, the move became a crucial chapter in his career and one that helped define the seasons that followed.

It has since come to light that Marquez essentially raced for nothing during his season with Gresini. In fact, the move cost him financially, with the wider paddock already aware that he was effectively buying out his Honda clause, which was set to expire at the end of 2024. Personal sponsors would have provided him with a fair wedge, but ultimately, the move played out as perfectly as it possibly could have.

Spending a year on a year-old bike at a satellite team could have sounded like something a rider of Marquez's stature would consider beneath him. Less funding, fewer personnel surrounding him and an older machine were hardly the ingredients expected of an eight-time champion.

Yet the opportunity to join his younger brother Alex was something his protective older brother was never going to turn down. The pair had previously been teammates at Honda in 2020, although Marc missed that season through injury. Four years later, they were finally reunited and shared the pit box at Gresini. The GP23 Marquez had at his disposal in 2024 was not a race-winning machine, particularly as Ducati's GP24 represented a significant step forward in development.

Even so, Marquez finished on the podium in half of the races and took three victories at Aragon, one of his strongest circuits, Misano, where Gresini ran its striking special livery, and Phillip Island, following plenty of adversity at the start of the race.

Each victory carried its own significance, and Marquez ultimately finished third in the championship, just over 100 points behind eventual World Champion Jorge Martin. The difference in performance between the GP23 and GP24 was there for everyone to see, yet Marquez continued to stand out on race day.

Gresini reminded him of what he enjoyed most about racing, which was putting on a visor and riding a motorcycle to its absolute limit. It came as little surprise, then, that by the early stages of the season, Ducati had already recognised that Marquez was the man they wanted alongside Francesco Bagnaia for 2025.

And the rest, as they say, is history...