Marc Marquez may “embarrass factory riders” | Bagnaia told “don’t poke the bear”

Marquez will ride a year-old Desmosedici when he joins Gresini Racing in 2024, giving him the machinery to finally draw the most out of his talent.

Marquez’s arrival at the Italian manufacturers - and his ability to beat rivals on a lesser bike - could spark new rivalries within MotoGP’s dominant team.

“No disrespect to Gresini because Ducati provide good machinery to all their teams,” Michael Laverty said to TNT Sports. 

“But look at the pecking order - it’s factory Ducati, Pramac Ducati, VR46 arguably, then Gresini.

“It is the fourth string team but look at what Enea Bastianini did there.

“Marc has an opportunity to embarrass the factory Ducati riders. Jorge Martin won’t want him there! Pecco has made some comments…”

Francesco Bagnaia, the reigning MotoGP champion who sits 18 points clear of Martin at the top of the standings ahead of this weekend’s Australian MotoGP, gave an interesting response to Marquez’s confirmation that he will join Ducati.

“It will be nice to share data with him, it will be interesting to see what he’s doing,” Bagnaia said. 

“But it will be good competition for him. We are eight riders, very competitive, and it will be interesting…

“I don’t know if he’ll fight for the championship but he’ll be in the top five, for sure.”

TNT Sports’ Neil Hodgson reacted to those words: “I respect Pecco for saying that. 

“Everyone was saying ‘Marc will be amazing’ but he said ‘no, I’m the champion, I’ll tell you what I think, yes he will go well, he’ll definitely be in the top five…’

““We all smiled. Don’t poke the bear!

We lost  a bit of that in MotoGP. We’re all hugging in parc ferme. I like a bit of spice!”