On October 4, 2023, the MotoGP made an official statement with some really big news. After 11 seasons, and among the most successful partnerships at that, Marc Marquez confirmed that he was leaving Honda. Back then, it was pretty much a known fact that the Spaniard would make his way to Gresini Racing, alongside his brother. Now, the Gresini Racing team has officially made the announcement.
Taking to Instagram, Gresini Racing uploaded an image of Marquez with his usual ear-to-ear smile. A simple caption reading, “It’s all true now! Welcome to the #GresiniFamily,” was added to the post, alongside an emoji of a goat and a blue heart. Funnily enough, if you scroll through the post (see below), Gresini Racing included an image of an actual goat (yes, the animal), and a strange email notification reading “Cannot Goat Message.” In case you’re not abreast with trends, goat is an acronym used by millennials and Gen Z-ers to connote “greatest of all time.” It seems that Gresini Racing considers Marc Marquez to be as such.
A quick look at the comments section of the post will reveal quite a lot of Valentino Rossi GIFs, suggesting that fans believe that VR46 is indeed the goat. That being said, feel free to chime in on the comments if you indeed agree with Gresini about Marquez being the goat.
Back to the topic at hand, a report by Italian motorcycling publication Moto.It goes in depth about Marquez’s thought process when it came to accepting the offer from Gresini Racing. According to Marquez, leaving Honda and signing with Gresini was an “extremely difficult decision, the hardest of my career. Breaking the relationship with Honda was difficult, last week was tough on an emotional level, all my staff, my family, my friends, my sponsors are in that team… but sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone."
He stated that he was looking for a new challenge, and to be part of a family-oriented team. “I needed a new challenge to have fun again, and that's why I chose the Gresini team, which is a big family. It will be a great challenge for me and for them, but they have already achieved excellent results with my brother and with Bastianini. I'm trying to smile again under my helmet." It certainly looks like Marc is excited to be racing with Gresini.
Speaking about racing, Marc Marquez could be seen riding Ducati machinery as early as the Valencia test, after the last round of the MotoGP scheduled for the weekend of November 26, 2023. According to Marquez, whether or not he will be riding the Ducati Desmosedici in the Valencia test after the final race of the 2023 season is indeed a possibility. "It's possible, we're talking about it," he said.
