The hangover from the Italian GP could not be more intense, because what was experienced on the track has been followed by a very important cascade of market movements. Aprilia has announced that Jorge Martín will be Aleix Espargaró’s replacement next season, which makes it clear that Marc Márquez will be Pecco Bagnaia’s partner in the official Ducati box next year. Furthermore, Enea Bastianini, who is left without a saddle, signs for KTM to, where you will have an official motorcycle regardless of the team, because the four Austrian motorcycles of 2025 will be managed by the factory.
Now the words of Albert Valera, representative of Martinator, to AS during the Italian GP weekend: “This is a different market where a single decision can trigger multiple unpredictable movements; we hope that reason and logic prevail over emotions.” That hope and something more is what led Martinator to be so happy on Thursday, because he felt he had been chosen to be Bagnaia’s teammate next year, but on Sunday his expression changed and he once again cast doubt on his future. The reason? Márquez’s trick on Ducati, who does not want to lose him, has worked and the eight-time champion has turned the tables, so much so that now he is the chosen one.
As AS has learned, Martín had been generous with Ducati when it came to accepting their conditions, while Márquez was playing his cards hard to join the official team, aware that Aprilia, with whom he had already spoken, was waiting for him with open arms. For years Martín dreamed of being on the Lenovo Ducati and He had agreed to be chosen for the red box with the condition that they would leave him again in Pramac and Márquez would be Pecco’s partner if the eight-time champion made history this year and won the title. That’s being understandable and also trusting your chances of not being beaten. a Marc who, on the other hand, did not want his choice to be conditioned by anything, that he is who he is for a reason and he has won everything he has won throughout these years and he has already shown as long as he has had a decent motorcycle, not the best, that he has not forgotten to ride.
With all this strategy, Ducati wanted to keep both the Madrid native and the Catalan in its pits, but ran the serious risk of being left without one of them and at the same time without the Prima Pramac team as its satellite team par excellence, because the latter could choose to change to Yamaha when it felt disappointed by the Italian factory. For them it would have been perfect for Márquez to arrive in their box as a replacement for Martín, but the man from Ilerda made it very clear on Thursday that Pramac was not his option. The next day, Friday morning, Marc and Campinoti met in the Mugello paddock and the driver told the Italian team owner that he had nothing against them, that what he said was because he was playing his cards, and his The task has turned out well, because the news that La Gazzetta gave on Thursday, that Martín was the chosen one, has changed completely: Martín ends up in Aprilia, Márquez in official Ducati and Bastianini in KTM.
