Alex Marquez, who now has factory support from a Ducati-backed satellite team, has shared his thoughts on the differences between his previous bike and the new-for-2026 GP26.
Marquez was handed a factory ride for 2026 after finishing second in last season’s riders’ championship.
He’d been racing on the GP24, which dominated during the 2024 season and had become strongly associated with success.
Even though Marc Marquez impressed many on the GP25 in 2025, the 2024-spec was still widely viewed as the standard-setter. This was largely due to Francesco Bagnaia’s struggles to adapt to the newer model following such a strong campaign with its predecessor.
Alex Marquez believes GP26 brings only minor changes from the GP24
So far, the body language of each factory-supported Ducati rider has been positive following their first laps with the GP26.
Bagnaia, in particular, has expressed satisfaction with the new bike, noting that he has already found a good feeling on it after struggling throughout the 2025 season.
After the second day of testing in Malaysia, Marquez spoke to reporters about his initial impressions of Ducati’s latest machine.
“Currently, I’m riding a kind of hybrid between last year’s bike and the new machine, and I’ve crashed with it,” he said via Speedweek. “I think we have a really good package. For me, the good character of my old bike [the GP24] is still there, but the differences are small.”
The younger Marquez brother will be eyeing a shot at dethroning his eight world title-winning elder this season. The fact that he is experiencing similar feelings on the new bike should be encouraging for his ambitions.
Following Ducati’s announcement that he would receive factory support this year, some expected Marquez to face challenges adapting to the GP26 – especially given Bagnaia’s struggles with last year’s model.
It may be early days to judge whether Marquez will truly click with the new machine, but any confidence gained during testing could make a difference when racing gets underway later this month.
Alex Marquez discusses day two crash at Sepang during MotoGP’s 2026 test
During day two of testing the GP26 at Sepang, Marquez had a fall at turn five just before the lunch break.
Fortunately for him, a heavy rain shower soon followed, meaning he didn’t lose any track time to rivals as conditions quickly levelled out.
When asked by reporters about what led to the incident, Marquez explained: “I did many laps on used tyres. Then we fitted a new soft tyre. The difference in grip is incredible; you have to adjust to it.
“The bike pushes, and I overstressed the front tyre. I was very annoyed with myself – I didn’t mean to damage the motorcycle like that.”
Joan Mir set the pace at the end of day two, suggesting Honda might pose a real challenge to Ducati’s bid for a seventh straight title this season.
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