Eight-time world champion Marc Marquez will leave Honda at the end of the season to make a sensational switch to the satellite Ducati squad Gresini Racing in next year.
Marquez’s decision to race a year-old Ducati and end ties with the factory Honda squad a season early comes amidst a difficult period for the Japanese manufacturer.
He has signed only a one-year deal with Gresini, telling the assembled media at the Indonesian Grand Prix last weekend that he has done so to discover whether or not he can find his enjoyment for riding a MotoGP bike again.
Speaking to British broadcaster TNT Sport, Alex Marquez admitted his brother will consider retirement at the end of 2024 if he still doesn’t enjoy his racing – but believes all of the doubts he has will vanish after his first test of the Ducati in Valencia in November.
“It’s what he said, the sense to have one year is to see if again if he enjoys this world,” Alex Marquez, who missed the Indonesian GP due to an ongoing rib injury, said.
“He is really [open] to me, and he says ‘ok, if I don’t enjoy I will retire’. It’s like this.
“It’s a possibility that now is on. So, he wants to see if he can enjoy again, if he can be fast after his injury.
“I don’t have any doubts but he has his doubts. He has all the reasons to have them because I had them on the Honda bike last year.
“But I’m sure in Valencia after one day already he will enjoy it a lot and these things [doubts] he has in his head will disappear really fast.”
Source: Autosport