Marc Marquez’s Silverstone MotoGP arm revelation “was a shock” for Ducati
Davide Tardozzi admits Marquez’s arm problems at Silverstone were a surprise to Ducati
Ducati MotoGP team boss Davide Tardozzi admits Marc Marquez’s struggles with his right arm at the British Grand Prix were “a shock for us too”.
The seven-time world champion suffered a complicated right shoulder injury last October in Indonesia following a collision with Marco Bezzecchi.
In the early races of 2026, Marc Marquez battled against an issue where some metalwork in his arm was touching his radial nerve, which was impacting his riding.
Following surgery after the French Grand Prix, Marquez returned to win in Hungary, Czechia and Germany to close a 102-point championship deficit down to 18 points.
He was expected to make another step in his recovery over the summer break, but arrived at Silverstone admitting that his condition “is what it is” and that he must now adapt to what he has.
He struggled to ninth in the sprint at the British Grand Prix and was seventh in the main race.
In a behind-the-scenes video after Silverstone, he told his team that he had “no control” over his right arm, and explained on Thursday at Aragon that he’d used up all of his energy by Sunday, having thought he could attack the weekend in a normal way.
Asked about this on Saturday at Aragon on the MotoGP world feed, Tardozzi admits his problems were a surprise to Ducati, but he is still confident Marquez can make a step.
“Yeah, honestly it was a shock for us too because we were confident that the summer break helped him,” he said.
“But as I said already, some months ago, that in September we will see the real potential of Marc.
“And I hope that after this race, Misano and Austria, we will have a real expectation.”
The Aragon weekend has seen Marquez be more competitive so far, with the track’s anticlockwise layout kinder on his physical condition.
He was fastest in FP1 and beat the lap record in Practice on Friday afternoon, though was only third at the end of the session.
However, unlike Marco Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez ahead of him, Marc Marquez did not fit a fresh soft rear tyre for his final run.
Marquez is a seven-time MotoGP winner at Aragon, and said on Thursday that he knew this was a good track for him when he first tested at it on a 125cc bike because he was able to keep up with Moto2 machinery.
