Marc Márquez extends Ducati MotoGP deal through 2028

Ducati locks in Marc Márquez for 2027 and 2028

Ducati Corse has confirmed that Marc Márquez will remain with the Ducati Lenovo Team for the 2027 and 2028 MotoGP World Championship seasons.

The official Ducati release presents the renewal as a natural continuation of the most successful phase yet of the Marquez-Ducati relationship, built around his 2025 title-winning season and Ducati’s belief that the #93 continues to represent the competitive spirit of the Bologna manufacturer.

For clarity, the contract announcement, the 2025 statistics and the quotes from Ducati and Marquez below are drawn directly from Ducati’s official press release. The injury and recovery context is MCNews analysis and background. Ducati’s release does not state that Marquez’s recent surgery is the reason for the renewal, but the timing of the announcement makes that context difficult to ignore.

What Ducati confirmed

Ducati has confirmed that Marquez will continue in factory red for the next two MotoGP seasons, taking his current Ducati Lenovo Team deal through to the end of 2028.

The relationship between Marquez and Ducati began at the start of 2024, before the Spaniard moved into the factory Ducati Lenovo Team from 2025. Ducati’s release points to that 2025 campaign as the foundation for the renewal, highlighting a remarkable debut year in red that delivered 14 Sprint wins, 11 Grand Prix victories, 10 double wins, the Riders’ Championship secured with five Grands Prix still remaining, and an all-time single-season record of 545 points.

Ducati also referenced the symbolism of 2026, its centenary year, with Marquez and the factory team reaching a shared “triple 100” milestone at the Hungarian Grand Prix. That day marked Ducati’s 100 years, Marquez’s 100th career victory across all classes, and the 100th MotoGP win for the Ducati Factory Team since 2003.

MCNews context: the injury backdrop

The official release is understandably framed around success, continuity and shared ambition. The broader context, however, is that this renewal comes only weeks after a significant medical intervention on Marquez’s right side.

Following his Le Mans Sprint crash, Marquez underwent surgery in Madrid to stabilise a fracture in the fifth metatarsal of his right foot. More importantly for his MotoGP future, he also brought forward a pre-planned procedure on his right shoulder, where old hardware and a bone fragment from a previous Latarjet operation had shifted and were compressing the radial nerve.

That nerve issue had become a serious complication. It was not simply a matter of pain tolerance. Marquez had been dealing with numbness, altered feeling, lack of precision and inconsistency while riding, particularly when loaded up in the MotoGP riding position.

On his return to action, Marquez indicated that the surgery had at least achieved its main objective, with the numbness and involuntary movements no longer troubling him as much. That did not mean he was suddenly back to full physical condition. He still spoke of pain, changed feeling on the bike, fatigue, and the need to rebuild strength and confidence in the right arm.

Marquez has not extended because he is physically untouched by the past. He has extended because, despite everything, the surgery appears to have given him a path back towards the level required to keep winning.

Rather than returning merely to circulate, Marquez was soon back at the sharp end. The Hungarian Grand Prix brought the symbolic 100th career win, highlighted by Ducati, and victory at Brno soon followed. Those results do not erase the ongoing weakness and discomfort, but they do change the conversation.

Marc Márquez

“I’m red. I’m truly happy with this new agreement with the Ducati Lenovo Team and to continue being part of this family,” Marquez said in Ducati’s official release.

“When I decided to join Ducati, I was convinced it was the most competitive project. They believed in me, and we built a relationship based on trust and hard work. With this renewal, they have once again reaffirmed this commitment, respecting my times and giving me the peace of mind I needed to make the right decision.

“In our first year together, we fought for the title and won it: a priceless result that confirms that the path we had chosen was the right one. I continue to compete because I love this sport and I want to achieve even more ambitious goals. I’m convinced this is the right place to do it. As long as I’m here, I’ll give my all to paint the future red.”

Ducati on the renewal

Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali described the renewal as the natural choice after the results achieved together in Marquez’s first season in red.

“He brought into a winning Team a mentality that is, if possible, even more determined and an extraordinary competitive spirit,” Domenicali said. “Marc, besides being an extraordinary talent, perfectly represents the Ducati mentality, made of great dedication and sacrifice but also of harmony within the Team and the ability to be great professionals even in a playful and serene atmosphere. Continuing together means giving continuity to a successful project and therefore facing the upcoming seasons with the ambition to keep Ducati at the top of MotoGP.”

Ducati Corse General Manager Luigi Dall’Igna framed the agreement around trust, both from Marquez in Ducati and from Ducati in Marquez.

“Trust, the relationship between Ducati and Marc starts here,” Dall’Igna said. “Marc has always put his passion, his motivation, and his true competitive spirit above all else in the choices that guided his experience with the Ducati Lenovo Team. He placed his trust in the entire Team: this filled us with pride and motivated us to always give our all to support him. As an engineer, working with Marc has impressed me. He brought the Desmosedici GP to peak performances, enhancing every component. The ambitions remain unchanged, and I am happy to be able to live, both sportingly and personally, a new chapter in this Ducati story together with Marc.”

More than just another contract

On paper, this is Ducati securing the reigning World Champion for another two seasons. In reality, it feels more significant than that.

Marquez is 33, heavily scarred by injury, and still not riding at 100 per cent. The recent operation has not made him pain-free, nor has it removed the underlying physical cost of the past decade. But it appears to have given him enough relief, enough control and enough evidence that the top step is still within reach.