Pramac MotoGP boss makes fiery Ducati claim: ‘They went back on their word’

Paolo Campinoti says Ducati “went back on their word” in 2024, as he claims Jorge Martin was set to join its factory team even if Marc Marquez refused a Pramac MotoGP seat.

The summer of 2024 saw one of MotoGP’s biggest rider market bombshells, as the factory Ducati team signed Marc Marquez to a two-year contract over that year’s eventual champion Jorge Martin.

Martin had been told he was going to be promoted by Ducati from Pramac, but Marquez’s refusal to take a factory bike at Pramac threw the Italian marque’s plans off course.

Marquez insisted that he would only accept a factory team promotion or a factory bike at Gresini, otherwise he would explore options for 2025 outside of Ducati.

Ducati management took this threat seriously and went back on its decision to promote Martin, who immediately signed a deal with Aprilia.

Pramac boss sheds more light on Ducati’s Martin U-turn

The decision had ramifications for Pramac, too, who elected against renewing with Ducati to become a Yamaha satellite instead from 2025.

In a new interview with Italy’s Moto.it, Campinoti claims that Ducati intended to still promote Martin even if Marquez refused to go to Pramac, with the latter “out” of the manufacturer's stable in that scenario.

“It was possible,” he said when asked about Marquez joining Pramac.

“He refused, and Ducati basically went back on their word.

“They said that if Marquez didn't accept, Martin would still go to the factory team, and Marquez was out.

“What they said wasn’t respected, and Martin basically made this hasty decision there, let's say, to sign with Aprilia immediately because it had created a human rift on his part, right? More than a professional one.”

How Ducati’s rider market bombshell has played out since

Ducati signing Marquez to its factory team was a far cry from the stance it held at one stage in 2023, when he was considering leaving Honda for Gresini Racing.

Its stance on Marquez riding one of its bikes softened, though by the time Ducati made its rider line-up decision for 2025, he still hadn’t won a grand prix on the Desmosedici.

Martin, meanwhile, was emerging as the strong favourite to win the championship that year.

Ultimately, he did, leaving Ducati to reckon with its decision to alienate a world champion. But there was little doubt keeping Marquez on side was still the right thing to do.

He went on to win 11 grands prix in 2025 and 14 sprints to dominate the season for his seventh premier class crown. Martin, meanwhile, was beset by injury woes, as he competed in just seven of the 22 rounds.

His relationship with Aprilia was also strained by a contract dispute that he instigated and lost.

Pramac went from winning the world title with Martin to finishing last in the teams’ standings in 2025, as underwhelming Yamaha machinery stopped Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira from scaling any significant heights.

It is, however, part of a longer-term vision for Yamaha’s return to the fore, with its part in the development of its new V4 bike going to be vital. Pramac has also made a significant rider market move of its own by signing three-time World Superbike champion Toprak Razgatlioglu.

There is an argument to be made that losing Pramac hindered Ducati somewhat, in that its decision to scale down from four factory bikes to three impacted the development of its tricky GP25.

Equally, though, Gresini stepped into the void filled by Pramac, with the team winning four times with both of its riders on year-old bikes to help maintain Ducati’s stranglehold on the championship.