Three events into the 2025 MotoGP team launch season, and the clear winner so far is Gresini Racing, which showed off Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer’s new chrome-plated Ducati GP24 machines in a dramatic unveiling at Italy’s historic Imola circuit on Saturday night.
And while the rider line-up for the satellite squad might be somewhat depleted compared to 12 months ago when it was able to show off then new signing Marc Marquez for the first time, the energy and the confidence on display at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari suggests a team that’s still very much riding on the crest of a wave after its monumental 2024 season.
Starting off with two laps of the track for all 400 attendees in order to officially unveil the new trackside art of team founder Fausto Gresini before then passing through a light show paying homage to the team’s history, the event was worthy of any Formula 1 team, never mind a family-run independent class MotoGP squad.
That’s no surprise, mind you, given that we got to see team boss Nadia Padovani’s flair for events 12 months ago when the elder Marquez brother formally joined the team.
But this year’s bigger and even more brash event demonstrated not only a team that’s confident in its abilities on and off the track but also one that’s well-stocked with sponsors and knows how to keep them happy.
It was made all the more stark in comparison to a completely lacklustre event earlier in the week from its MotoGP rival Trackhouse, which premiered a pre-recorded video of a bike almost entirely devoid of sponsors and with no guests or media in attendance.
And despite the departure of three-time 2024 race winner Marc Marquez to the factory team for the coming year, there’s no reason why Gresini shouldn’t feel at least somewhat confident about 2025, either.
It’s still running year-old Ducatis but there’s a key difference this time that negates a big 2024 disadvantage. The 2023 Ducatis Marc Marquez and his brother and team-mate Alex rode for Gresini last season were not designed to work with the new rear tyre Michelin brought for 2024. The 2024 Ducati Gresini now has was specifically built around that tyre, and it should mean Alex Marquez - who stays on after his sibling’s move to the Ducati factory team - has a far more comfortable time.
Alex struggled, like all other 2023-spec Ducati riders apart from his brother, in the past season to get the bike working the way he really wanted it to. That’s not going to be a hindrance in 2025 - and should in theory mean that the two-time junior class world champion should be in for a much stronger season.
That will especially be the case in the early races of the year, when without the hindrance of bike development that the factory riders will have to concentrate on, he’ll be in with a very good chance of finally delivering not just sprint wins but MotoGP victories - something he’s already hinted at by topping the post-season test at Barcelona.
“The bike was more balanced for my riding style,” Marquez exclusively told The Race at the team launch. “I can use more rear tyre, more new tyre, not the way that like we said many times the 2023 [Ducati] was pushing the front.
“It was tough to brake late and enter into the corners, and the balance of the [new] bike was better. It’s a bike they did for that tyre, and everything was working much more naturally.
“Always when you try a new bike, you say ‘yes it’s better’ but the lap time is not super more fast. But with this one it was clear we were faster, clear that it’s a really good thing.
“I think that it’s the first test that I led in MotoGP, but it’s a high expectation to be there. They haven’t put the ‘real’ 2025 bike on track yet, and when you’re an official rider you have to try many things.
“I was just focused on the bike that I had, not trying things, and it was more easy for me to make the time.”
The change of rear tyre for 2024 meant last season the year-old Ducati runners couldn’t do their normal party trick of being blisteringly fast early in the year - think then-Gresini-racer Enea Bastianini winning the 2022 opener on his old Ducati (pictured below) or Marco Bezzecchi flying on the 2022 Ducati for VR46 early in 2023.
Expect a situation more like that in 2025, and therefore an early chance for Alex Marquez to improve on his five podiums in MotoGP grands prix and finally make it to the top step in a main race.
“I mean, we said this last year and it wasn’t like this!” he joked.
“But why not? We need to make a solid pre-season, to be there and ready if we have that opportunity, to extract the 100% potential from the bike.”
