Marc Marquez Tops MotoGP Thai Test Day One by Half a Second
Factory Ducati rider Marc Marquez tops his brother Alex and Franco Morbidelli on Buriram MotoGP test day one.
After Davide Tardozzi had explained on MotoGP’s “After the Flag” format at the Buriram test that Ducati was still undecisive about which engine specification to homologate for the 2025 season, Marc Marquez gives the reason behind the Italians’ predicament.
Tardozzi had revealed the Bologna-based team was leaning towards the older, but proven GP24 engine. “We don’t want to take any risks, so it looks like we’re leaning towards the 2024 [engine].”
After the first day of testing at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Marc Marquez gave the reason:
“We understand from the first day to today that the 2025 [specification] is a little bit more up and down: It’s very strong in some points, [but has] very weak points.”
With the GP24 (engine) winning 80% of races in 2024 and given the big weaknesses of the ’25-spec, Marquez says Ducati “can’t afford to take the risk” of homologating an engine the team is unsure about.
“Today we concentrated on the 2024 engine for most of the day, because if it doesn’t change a lot tomorrow, it looks like it is the [better one for the season],” Marquez said after comfortably topping the first day of running at the Buriram test.
“Ducati is very realistic and they know, and they are very smart, that we cannot take the risk to homologate an engine that if we are not 100% sure is better than 2024 because if we homologate the engine we homologate it for two years.”
The decision looms large over the Italians. In the late stages of 2024, manufacturers agreed to introduce an engine development freeze for 2026 in anticipation of the new regulations coming to the premier class the year after.
Choosing the 2024 engine means staying with it until the end of 2026. “Honestly, it’s a very difficult choice.”
“At the moment we are both leaning, and the team also, in the same direction: to go with the 2024 engine,” Marquez’s teammate Pecco Bagnaia said after finishing day one eighth on the timesheet.
“It’s not that the 2025 [engine] isn’t competitive, but we are still struggling to find a balance on braking.”
