Alex Marquez: "I don't want to know Bagnaia's problems

2025 was the best season of Alex Marquez’s MotoGP career. With six wins (three sprints and three GPs) and a total of 27 podiums, he became vice world champion behind his brother Marc. The Spaniard closed the championship with a victory in the final sprint race in Valencia, before getting to work on the factory Desmosedici.

The 2026 MotoGP season kicked off on Tuesday at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit with the test day. Alex Marquez completed 53 laps and finished third on the timesheets, behind the Aprilia duo of Raul Fernandez and Marco Bezzecchi. He carried out an intensive testing program for his company, Ducati. Among many things, he tried a new aerodynamic package. He had both his GP24 and the newer GP25 at his disposal. However, team manager Davide Tardozzi emphasized that the Catalan rider was given a GP24+, not a GP25.

"If Tardozzi says so, then it was a GP24+," smiled the Gresini rider. "Since we had less time available than expected, we tested fewer things than planned. But we managed to complete the priority tasks. There were several ideas to explore different directions. We thoroughly tested all the parts and were clear in our feedback. We also pushed to the limit so that Ducati and the engineers could analyze the data afterwards. I was able to finish the season with a good feeling."

The MotoGP runner-up tested various solutions, some beneficial and others less so. "It was about finding the right balance. We also did some experiments with the setup. Now it’s about analyzing everything back home to be faster in the future." In 2026 he will have a factory Ducati at his disposal, on par with his brother Marc Marquez, Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Di Giannantonio. The difference was immediately evident in Valencia. "There were a lot of people in red in my garage. The biggest difference was that the bike was different on every run. Therefore, it’s not easy for the rider to find the limit of each package... It was a very positive test, we need to improve further at Sepang."

Until then, nothing can be set in stone; the GP26 is still a work in progress. "There’s a mix of things we still need to figure out," admitted Alex Marquez. "But, in the end, our job is to push everything I tested to the limit, give them useful information, and then look at the numbers, because numbers never lie. That way they’ll have useful information to help them improve."

The GP25 allowed Marc Marquez to win the MotoGP title with remarkable ease, but it caused plenty of problems for Pecco Bagnaia. A fact that doesn’t seem to worry the Gresini team’s standard bearer. "I don’t know what bike (Bagnaia) had... I don’t want to know what problems they had or didn’t have. I just focused on myself and we got the most out of it," commented the rider from Lleida. "But it’s true there are things to improve. As we saw in the last races, because Aprilia and KTM are very close. So I think we tested several important solutions to get started and take another step forward."

(Photo Michelin Motorsport)