Marc Marquez has revealed he pitched Jorge Lorenzo's name to Honda for the 2019 MotoGP season in order to stave off a growing threat from Ducati.
Lorenzo, the only rider to beat Marquez to the title during the latter's purple patch in the 2010s, had joined Ducati in 2017 after splitting from his long-term employer Yamaha.
But before he could fully adapt to the Desmosedici and start winning grands prix in his second season in 2018, Ducati had already decided not to renew his contract for the following year.
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However, the very arrival of Lorenzo at Ducati raised alarm bells for compatriot Marquez, who could sense that the Italian manufacturer was starting to get its act together in MotoGP.
It's why he spoke to Honda in an attempt to get the three-time premier class champion onboard for 2019, aware that Ducati had the potential to end the Japanese marque's hegemony with a rider of Lorenzo's calibre.
"Just when Lorenzo was already at Ducati, I told [Honda]: 'They have arrived'," Marquez said in Spanish documentary La vida en rojo.
"I say [to Honda] the best strategy is that you take Lorenzo and put him here. If not, another rider with another brand will beat you, because Lorenzo is Lorenzo, five-time world champion."
Lorenzo joined Ducati at a time when it was just returning to winning ways in MotoGP under the guidance of new technical chief Gigi Dall'Igna.
But like his former Yamaha team-mate and arch-rival Valentino Rossi, the Spaniard also initially struggled to get to grips with the bike in the first year.
He ended up winning three races in his sophomore campaign with Ducati, including back-to-back triumphs in Mugello and Barcelona, providing a glimpse of what they could have achieved together if the partnership had continued in 2019.
But by this point, Ducati had already decided to promote Danilo Petrucci from Pramac, with Lorenzo instead inking a shock deal with Honda to replace the retiring Dani Pedrosa.
Recalling his time with Ducati, Lorenzo said: "I already had an inkling. What happened is that perhaps I thought the adaptation would be quicker.
"It was a bike that ran faster on the straight, it was very stable when braking, but it did not have the turn of the Yamaha. Basically, I wanted to ride the Ducati like the Yamaha.
"I thought I would start 2018 better, but it was the opposite. On top of that, I had the bad luck of that triple crash in Jerez, and of knocking out Dovizioso, the contender for the title alongside Marquez, and that didn't make Ducati very happy either.
"When I saw that I was between a rock and a hard place, I picked up the phone and called [Honda boss] Alberto Puig directly."
After a season as Marquez's team-mate at Honda in 2019, Lorenzo called time on his career as a professional rider.
