Coming into the 2025 MotoGP season, Ducati made considerable sacrifices in order to secure Marc Marquez's signature and to place him on the latest spec GP25 machine.
So, as he prepares to start the upcoming season on a year-old bike after all, you have to ask: was it worth the price it paid?
It's hardly a secret that there was a considerable effort from racing boss Gigi Dall'Igna to put Marquez on one of the 2025 bikes this year after his debut Ducati season last year riding one of Gresini Racing's year-old GP23s alongside his brother, Alex.
Unable to fully adapt to the new Michelin rear tyre brought for the season, the old bike underperformed, and while Marquez might have been able to win three races on it, others like Marco Bezzecchi were left disappointed and frustrated with the lack of performance.
As a result, the goal for 2025 became to ensure that six-time champion Marquez received the latest specification of machinery to enable him to fight for title number seven.
Marquez was initially keen to remain in the family-run Gresini team - if he could have a 2025-spec bike there - where he had quickly fitted in, but that was rejected out of hand by Ducati. Contractually, only the factory team and top-tier satellite squad Pramac would receive GP25s, and Marquez would have to move to one of those teams should he want it.
Pramac, he quickly told the world, was out of the question. There was no point in moving from one satellite team to another, especially when factory colours were on the negotiating table.
However, the price for making that offer was a high one for Ducati - because then championship-leader Jorge Martin also wanted a factory spot. And with Pecco Bagnaia already signed up, it was clear that Martin was going to miss out on one for the third year in a row and Ducati snubbed him again.
Burned three times, Martin wasn't going to settle for another season at Pramac, even if he did prove in 2024 that he was capable of winning a world title on its machinery against the factory squad led by Bagnaia.
A move to Aprilia, complete with his new number one plate, quickly dealt a huge PR blow to Ducati as a result of its rejection of Martin.
That was only part one, however. Pramac, now without new champion Martin and with Marquez publicly dismissing it, was courted aggressively and successfully by Yamaha - following Martin's lead in walking away from Ducati.
Marquez soon signed up as a factory racer for 2025, with the brand new machinery he desired - but at the cost of Ducati's latest world champion Martin and the Yamaha-bound satellite team that took him to championship glory.
Amazingly, after a rather disappointing testing programme, Marquez and Bagnaia will start the 2025 season (and, by extension, the 2026 one too) not using Dall'Igna's new 2025 bike, but rather the year-old machine from the year before - the same bike that Marquez's replacement at Gresini, Fermin Aldeguer, will also ride...
