However, when Marc Marquez is confirmed as a Ducati factory team racer, he will be compared and even compared to other World Champions who have held that position, such as Casey Stoner, Nicky Hayden, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Pecco Bagnai. However, Marc, Jorge and Rossi in particular have a special background, where when they joined Ducati, all three of them had quite a lot of previous titles. And regarding this, the Lenovo Ducati team manager, Davide Tardozzi, had the opportunity to speak for a few minutes with GPOne.
Marc Marquez’s bet can be considered Ducati’s third bet with a top rider, after the first bet with Valentino Rossi and then with Jorge Lorenzo. However, according to Tardozzi, the three are completely different.
“This is a very different gamble,” said Tardozzi, “because of the preparation we have now as a manufacturer, the bike, the management and the technical management. It was a real mistake when we brought Valentino to Ducati, we were not ready. Ducati is not ready to manage Valentino Rossi, today we were mostly ready.”
“I remind you also that now we have a two-time world champion. When you manage Francesco Bagnaia, I don’t understand why you can’t also manage Marc Marquez. That doesn’t mean Pecco is inferior to Marc. He is a rider who shows that he wants to win, then he does it in the most polite way and I talk about what happens off the track.”
“Pecco knows his values, confidence in himself, he is very confident in his bike, and also in the team. You only have to look at some of his races to see that. It also delivers performance. Marc came to Pecco Bagnaia’s small section. He has made statements about Pecco that are flattering and not ad hoc.”
“When Marc speaks, he always knows exactly what he is saying, he never speaks out of turn. I’ve never heard of him doing that. When he makes a statement, it is the truth and often the statement also has a specific purpose. So he’s a very smart guy and he’ll be very careful when it comes to us [like] walking on eggshells and trying to understand how we operate. Because in the box, Ducati is the one who controls everything, not the racer.”
With Valentino the timing was completely wrong, with Jorge Lorenzo I think he made a mistake signing too early with Honda. If he had waited just a few days, the story could have been different. Jorge did a lap of 30.9 at Misano which was surprising and he did it in 2017. It’s a shame.”
