Newly crowned MotoGP champion Jorge Martin has left the door open for a potential reunion with Ducati in the future.
The Spaniard said he is open to working with Ducati again despite his relationship with the Borgo Panigale marque having been fractured by its decision to snub him for a factory ride.
Martin was the initial favourite to step up to the seat occupied by Enea Bastianini this year, only for Ducati to suddenly change its mind and sign six-time premier class champion Marc Marquez instead.
It prompted Martin to sever all ties he had with a manufacturer since his debut in MotoGP four years ago and join Italian rival Aprilia on a multi-year contract beginning 2025.
While the 26-year-old still appears to have some hard feelings about Ducati’s choice of line-up, he has publicly commended the company for ensuring he had a chance of beating Francesco Bagnaia in his successful 2024 title bid.
"I can only thank Ducati. They have given me a lot. For example, the opportunity to get to MotoGP, which is already very difficult,” he said at ‘Campioni in Festa’, which he attended as he remains contractually bound to Ducati until 31st December.
“When I arrived [in MotoGP], [the Desmosedici] wasn't a winning bike. It wasn't the easiest project, but both they and I had confidence in ourselves.
“And then they gave me the opportunity to fight for a world championship until the end. Nobody here, none of you [the media], thought it would end like this, but in the end it did end like this, I won the title.
“I can only thank Ducati for this and maybe in the future we can be together again.”
Pramac rider Martin challenged for the MotoGP title for the first time in 2023, but was ultimately not “ready” to beat factory Ducati rider Bagnaia to the crown.
He returned to the championship as a more complete rider in 2024, with a focus on consistency over outright results helping him become the first rider to win the title on a satellite bike in the MotoGP era.
Asked if he believed he could be champion at the start of the year, he said: "Yes, of course. As Gigi said, if you start the season thinking about not winning, I'll go home first - because I don't need all that headache to try to win.”
Martin will start a new chapter in his career in 2025 with Aprilia, which finished third in the constructors’ championship this year despite being the only manufacturer to beat Ducati to a grand prix victory.
Martin admitted that Aprilia has a lot of work to do to close the gap to Ducati in the current rule cycle, but feels the opportunity to race for a brand that is not quite a frontrunner gives him extra motivation to build on his current success.
“We'll build from scratch, we'll learn,” he said of his move to Aprilia. “We'll see where we start and we'll try to improve every day. Who knows what we can do. Maybe we'll start very well and we can do great things . Maybe we won't start so well and we'll have to improve. We'll see what happens, but I think it could be very good.
"I think it's a very big challenge that I have ahead of me, it's going to be very difficult. It's not easy to change a winning bike or a winning project for one that isn't winning at all at the moment.
“But I'm very confident, and I think this gives me more motivation for this new project. I'm sure staying at Ducati, and already having a world championship, would have been great, but this gives me more motivation to try to be someone in the world of motorcycles."
