Marc Marquez reveals that he waived his salary from the team for his move from the Honda factory team to the Ducati customer team Gresini.
When Marc Marquez left the Honda factory team in the winter of 2023/24, he did so after eleven years in his familiar working environment and one year before his contract would have expired. For the 2024 MotoGP season, the then six-time world champion in the premier class joined the Ducati customer team Gresini.
Marquez was solely focused on one factor: he switched from Honda, which had recently become uncompetitive, to Ducati in order to prove to himself that he was still capable of consistently competing for victories after his numerous serious injuries.
The fact that he had to make do with a previous year’s motorcycle, the 2023 Ducati GP23, didn’t bother Marquez at the time, nor did the fact that he wasn’t paid a salary by the Gresini team.
That’s exactly what the now seven-time MotoGP world champion is revealing now that he’s employed by the Ducati factory team. In 2025, he received a base salary of around three million euros. On top of that, he received performance-related bonuses, which amounted to around two million euros for eleven season victories. When asked what percentage of his salary he had to forego when he switched teams from Honda to Gresini-Ducati in the winter of 2023/24, Marquez replied: “One hundred percent. I rode for the team for free last year.”
“I received some [money] from my personal sponsors,” Marquez admits, explaining this unusual step for a professional athlete: “That was simply my contribution. It was an investment I made in my own career.”
When asked whether he was financially supported in the 2024 season by the Gresini team, at least after his victories and podium finishes, Marquez replies: “Yes, by my personal sponsors.” Marc Marquez achieved three Grand Prix victories on the 2023 Ducati. He finished on the podium ten times in the 20 Grand Prix races that season.
“I really appreciated Gresini waiting for me back then,” Marquez recalls, thinking back to the fall of 2023, when he first announced his departure from Honda and shortly thereafter his move to the Ducati customer team. “But I told the team, don’t worry. I just want this bike. That’s all I want.”
Now that not only the 2024 MotoGP season but also the 2025 season are in the books, one thing is clear: Marc Marquez’s decision in the winter of 2023/24 has paid off. After a year in the Ducati customer team, he moved up to the Ducati factory team in the winter of 2024/25. And in his first year there, he won the world championship title in superior fashion.
Marc Marquez will enter the upcoming 2026 MotoGP season as the defending champion. And in this season, regardless of a possible eighth world championship title in the premier class and a tenth world championship title overall in his career, he has two more career milestones in his sights.
Marquez is just one victory away from reaching the milestone of 100 Grand Prix wins across all world championship classes. And Marquez is only five wins away from Valentino Rossi’s record of 78 wins in the MotoGP era, which began in 2002.
