Alex Marquez has had a difficult start to the 2026 MotoGP season and has been warned by former MotoGP team boss Francesco Guidotti about the ‘promises’ to follow as he races on factory Ducati machinery.
Alex Marquez He was one of the standout stars of last year’s MotoGP campaign. By the time he secured his first premier class win, the Spaniard had become somewhat of a title contender and surprised everyone with his eventual second place finish in the Riders’ Championship.
Predict the order of Ducati riders in the 2026 MotoGP rankings
His elder brother, Mark MarquezHe proved to be in a league of his own, of course, but the improvement in the performance of the Gresini star proved to be enough. Alex Marquez will be awarded a factory bike for the 2026 MotoGP season..
However, with great power comes great responsibility, and Francesco Guidotti warned the 29-year-old that Ducati’s expectations for him are too big for him now that he has a factory prototype under his belt.
According to Francesco Guidotti, Alex Marquez will have to live up to the high expectations of 2026.
In a recent interview Speed ​​weekFormer KTM team boss Guidotti has assessed Ducati’s performance at the 2026 season opener in Thailand and issued a warning to Alex Marquez ahead of the Spaniard’s first year with the rest of the factory machinery.
He started by appreciating the effort they started VR46 Double Fabio D’Giantantonio And Franco MorbidelliThe Italian constructor’s leading riders finished the race in P6 and P8 respectively.
He said: “The VR46 drivers were also there in terms of speed. The result just didn’t reflect that.[Di Giantantonio]also had a bit of a technical problem, and Morbidelli, starting 19th after a very poor start, put in one of the best races – the pace of both was competitive.”
Alex Marquez, meanwhile, failed to finish the race after crashing on lap 21. A DNF followed a P11 in Saturday’s sprint race, meaning the Spaniard currently sits at the bottom of the MotoGP standings, not to mention his name.
Has Alex Marquez already hit the roof in MotoGP?
In his review Gresini As a factory-backed rider on Star’s first race weekend, Guidotti said, “I don’t think ‘Alex’s case’ is that simple. He started in different circumstances until 2025.”
“At that time, no one had him on their radar and he was free to compete as he wanted – every race was good in his approach.
“That has changed. Now there are expectations because of the factory support – in Thailand, that ends up in gravel.”
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