Ducati loses the starting number 1: Luigi Dall’Igna defends the decision to have Marc Marquez instead of world champion Jorge Martin in the factory team
In the summer, Ducati was faced with the difficult decision of whether to promote Jorge Martin or Marc Marquez to the factory team. In the end, the choice fell on Marquez, who had not yet won a race with Ducati at the time, at the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello. Martin then signed with Aprilia.
Ducati racing manager Luigi Dall’Igna emphasized several times that the decision was anything but easy. The fact that Jorge Martin, as the reigning world champion, can take starting number 1 with him to his new employer, provided he wants to use the number of the champion, does not bother Dall’Igna.
“The number 1 is just a number. What’s important is that Martin won the title on a Ducati,“ says the Ducati Corse boss, who was always aware that Ducati would ultimately decide against the 2024 world champion.
”That was one of the possibilities. We wanted to keep all three drivers, but there were many hurdles to overcome. In the end, we had to decide on two drivers,“
”In the end, we chose ‘Pecco’ and Marc. But when we made that decision, we knew very well that Martin could win the World Championship,” reports Dall’Igna, who took a variety of aspects into account in his decision.
When Marquez moved from Honda to Ducati, he accepted that he would be driving a Ducati from the previous year and competing for the Gresini customer team in the 2024 season. The multiple world champion quickly adapted to the Desmosedici. However, the fact that Marquez had to wait until September to finally celebrate another race victory surprised some experts.
Dall’Igna was better than any other expert at judging how big Marquez’s disadvantage was with the 2023 Ducati, which couldn’t utilize the new Michelin rear tire as well as the current factory bike. The data recordings indicated to Dall’Igna that Marquez achieved extraordinary performances on the previous year’s Desmosedici. This was reason enough to bring the MotoGP superstar into the factory team.
“We are all only human, even the drivers. It is important to anticipate developments to find out whether one driver or another is better. This is not an easy task, but it is our job. Sometimes we are right, sometimes we are wrong because we are all only human,” comments the Ducati Corse boss.
