Alex Marquez Reveals Gresini Promise Before KTM Move

Alex Marquez has explained why he accepted KTM's offer for the 2027 MotoGP season, while also revealing the promise he made to Gresini during the negotiations.

The 2025 MotoGP runner-up has been announced as a KTM factory rider for next season, where he will line up alongside Fabio Di Giannantonio. The move will give Marquez his second opportunity in a works team after making his premier-class debut with Repsol Honda in 2020.

Marquez had been linked with KTM for some time and explained ahead of the German Grand Prix that the Austrian manufacturer's belief in him was a decisive factor. He said the project offered the opportunity he had been seeking after 2025, when his main target was to return to a factory structure.

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“I’m super excited,” Marquez said of the KTM deal.

“After last year, where I was the runner-up, I was just trying to have the opportunity to be in a factory team. And it’s true that, when I started to speak with KTM, they were really convinced to have me in the project.”

Marquez stressed the decision was not easy because of his strong relationship with Gresini. He said Nadia Padovani, Michele Masini and Carlo Merlini were informed from the first day he spoke with KTM, in line with the promise he had made to Padovani.

“It was not an easy decision, but in that moment, Nadia, Michele, and Carlo were informed from the first day that I spoke with KTM, because I made a promise to Nadia that if somebody comes that I would speak to her first of all,” Marquez said.

“It’s true that I signed a few months ago, but I’m still really excited because it’s a really great opportunity and a really great step for me in my MotoGP career.”

Marquez currently has factory support from Ducati in 2026, but not a full works rider contract. He said being in a satellite team with factory backing is still not fully the same as being directly inside the factory team, particularly when bike development can change significantly from the opening races.

“It’s true when you are in a satellite team but have a factory contract, it’s more or less the same thing. It will never be the same as the factory team,” he said.

“But the thing is that the majority of riders try to find the factory contract because then you have direct factory support to your team or your satellite team. So, that was the main thing.”

Marquez also accepted that his chances of stepping up to Ducati's factory team were limited, with Ducati said to be focused on signing Pedro Acosta. He described Acosta as a future MotoGP champion, while noting that he is in a different stage of his career and chose KTM once he was convinced by the project.

“I don’t know if I was waiting a little bit longer if it would arrive or not, but in that moment they were quite focused already to sign Pedro,” Marquez said.

“That’s something that I accept, it’s something normal. Pedro, I think, is a future champion of MotoGP and is really young. I’m already 30. So, I’m in a different situation than Pedro. So, maybe if I waited a little bit more, maybe it would have arrived. But in that moment, I said, ‘I want this’. I was really convinced.”

Marquez's decision now places KTM as the next major chapter of his career, while the remainder of his time with Gresini will be an important phase before he returns to a full factory structure in MotoGP 2027.