On Thursday, Gazzetta dello Sport reported that the Borgo Panigale brand has finally decided on the Spaniard to join Francesco Bagnaia in the company’s official garage, starting next season.
Talks have intensified in recent days with Albert Valera, Martin’s agent, who will be at the Italian Grand Prix this weekend — the event in which Ducati outlined it would like its final decision to be made.
In any case, Motorsport.com understands that the contract between the two parties has not yet been signed, which is likely to be done this weekend, provided that a number of factors align that do not yet fit.
The first is that Marquez, with whom championship leader Martin has been vying for that red factory Desmosedici, agrees to join Pramac would then extend its relationship with the Bolognese manufacturer until at least 2026.
Since the beginning of the season, Martin’s main objective was to be promoted to the official team of the Italian manufacturer, after losing out to Enea Bastianini for 2023.
Since the beginning of this year, the Spaniard made it very clear to Ducati executives that they would have until Mugello to make its decision.
Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
If he did not receive a satisfactory offer, he would join another project. In this sense, GasGas has lately been knocking on his door insistently.
In the event that the operation ends up being executed, it will cause a chain reaction that will probably cause the rest of the vacancies on the grid to be filled quickly.
The first derivative of this would be to know what Marquez will do, whom Ducati does not want to lose, given the speed exhibited in his first season on a Desmosedici, and his media power.
Until now, Marquez has always maintained that his priority was obviously to return to racing for a factory team, with the latest evolution of whatever prototype it was.
At this point, it remains to be seen if the change of scenery leads him to conclude that it is more beneficial for him to have a Desmosedici GP25, from Pramac, than to face again a process of adaptation to a new bike — most likely one of those of the Pierer Mobility group (KTM or GasGas), which has presented him with a very tempting offer.
Another of the victims of the eventual decision of Ducati is Bastianini, who would be very well received by Aprilia, which seeks to be able to count on an Italian rider.