Tension Erupts in Ducati Garage as Marc Marquez Struggles with Setup at British GP
Marc Marquez’s underwhelming performance at the British Grand Prix has exposed deep-rooted issues within Ducati’s MotoGP factory team, with former rider agent Carlo Pernat revealing palpable “tension” over the Spanish star’s bike setup.
While Alex Marquez managed a respectable fourth place, Marc’s seventh-place finish starkly highlighted the challenges he faced, particularly in finding the right balance for Silverstone’s demanding conditions.
The weekend was dominated by Aprilia’s RS-GP26, particularly suited to Silverstone’s long, sweeping corners, reinforcing their expected supremacy. However, Marc Marquez’s inability to stay in podium contention raised eyebrows, especially given the typically competitive nature of his performances. Pol Espargaro attributed part of Marc’s struggles to excessive tyre wear during both the Sprint and main races, blaming the unusually warm weather for accelerating degradation beyond forecasts.
Yet, it was Ducati’s chosen setup that arguably compounded Marquez’s woes. Pernat, speaking on Marco Piccari’s YouTube channel, laid bare the core problem: “It’s one thing to set lap times over a lap or two, but it’s quite another to start doing 7-8 laps – that changes everything.” He then delivered a damning verdict on Marquez’s machinery. “He didn’t even have the pace in practice, but the setup that Marquez used – out of all the Ducatis, in my opinion it was the worst set-up. I don’t know if – and I say this quite calmly – it was his fault, the team’s fault, the squad’s fault, or the engineers’ fault; I don’t know.”
Marquez’s lap times in Saturday’s Sprint race revealed the struggle: his final lap was nearly five seconds slower than his opening timed lap, culminating in a ninth-place finish and just a single point. Although his race pace improved on Sunday, the gap to the leaders remained significant.
Pernat also highlighted the internal contrast within Ducati. “Did you notice that for Alex Marquez, the setup was decent? If he hadn’t made that mistake, he might well have made the podium.” Additionally, he referenced fellow Ducati rider Di Giannantonio’s comments about a “general problem,” noting, “he was lapping better than Marquez. So, his set-up was the worst of all the Ducatis.”
When questioned about responsibility, Marquez himself accepted accountability. “When you ask him, is it your fault or is it the team’s fault, he rightly says, ‘It’s my fault,’ because he’s a great rider,” Pernat concluded.
This revelation of discord and suboptimal setup at Ducati’s Silverstone campaign underscores the urgent need for the factory team to recalibrate their approach if they hope to maximize Marquez’s potential in the fiercely competitive MotoGP field.