Alex Marquez's Ultimatum: "I'll Decide Before Thailand

Alex Marquez leaves Sepang with the fastest time in the MotoGP tests and the best race pace. There was great anticipation in the Gresini garage to see if he could confirm himself at last year’s level. The runner-up did not disappoint expectations and establishes himself as one of the favorites for the 2026 world title.

The rider from Lleida was the quickest over the three days of testing with a 1:56.402, improving on all the times set at the Malaysian track. He came within just 65 thousandths of a second of Bagnaia’s lap record, standing out as the best Ducati rider in the first preseason outing. Alex Marquez has a GP26 at his disposal, on par with Pecco and Marc. Before attempting an adventure elsewhere with a factory team, he will try to seize this great opportunity to make history. But first there’s the test in Thailand, a different circuit, where he’ll be looking for confirmation. “I don’t think everyone showed their full hand in this test.”

While awaiting the next moves on the market, Alex Marquez’s status has certainly grown in recent months. So much so that he also had to test technical innovations. “It’s a lot more fun to try things. It’s true that sometimes you try things and you see they don’t work and they make you ‘fail’,” explained the MotoGP runner-up. “For the rider it’s much more difficult, because there are moments in the day when you lose the ‘feeling’… That’s when you have to stay calm or have the cold blood to see yourself 12th, see that you’re on used tires, you have to test and then it will be time to push.”

This could be the last season in which he shares feedback with his brother Marc Marquez. “At the end of the day… It’s a tight two minutes, because we both have things to do, but yes, you talk a bit—what you tried and what you didn’t. It’s true that when one of us hasn’t tried something yet, we try not to tell him, so as not to be influenced. But if we’ve both tried the same thing, and we know it because all the information is shared, that’s when you try to comment or see what he felt and what you felt.”

In the next MotoGP test at Buriram he will work on finding the best setup for his Desmosedici GP26. Those days will also be the time to make important decisions and put some signatures on paper… KTM is waiting, a deal also driven by his sponsor Red Bull, which has supported him for years. There won’t be a seat for him in the factory Ducati team, and Gresini would like to keep him for life. But Alex Marquez now has what it takes to aim for a factory squad. “Before the first race I’ll decide where I’ll race in 2027.”