MotoGP Gossip: Ducati lets slip Marc Marquez’s sizeable salary rise

Ducati’s Paolo Ciabatti has revealed one of the reasons the manufacturer didn’t make a convincing bid to lure Marc Marquez to the team for the 2021 MotoGP season by revealing how much it would have taken to outbid Honda. Ciabatti claims Marquez will earn between 15 and 20 million per year for the next four seasons, which is understood to be a healthy increase on the 10 million euros he will earn in 2020. (Marca)

Franco Morbidelli says he ‘trusts’ in the people around him to ensure he gets a good deal for the 2021 MotoGP World Championship season as he looks set to extend his stay at the Petronas SRT Yamaha team. If he does, Morbidelli will likely have his idol and mentor Valentino Rossi racing alongside him, a premise he says gives him ‘goosebumps’ when he thinks about it. (GPOne via Speedweek)

LCR boss Lucio Cecchinello has harked back to the year Casey Stoner made his memorable MotoGP debut with the satellite Honda team, saying his natural talents didn’t take long to develop in the premier class. He recounts an example of how Stoner once landed in Qatar for the second round of the season at 09:35 – just 25mins before the start of FP1 - following a series of delays, only for him to hit the ground running at 10:02 to pump in the quickest time by 10:05 – “Casey was like that, extremely naturally gifted” (Motosprint via AS)

Jakub Kornfeil has been tipped to do a ‘Jorge Lorenzo’ and come out of retirement just weeks after announcing his plans to step away from racing with a return in MotoE in place of Bradley Smith. The Czech rider revealed in January he was hanging up his helmet after 11 seasons in the 125GP/Moto3 World Championship, but according to MotoGP CZ/SK, Kornfeil is set to be drafted in as the replacement for Bradley Smith on the Petronas SRT-run WithU Motorsport MotoE team. Smith was set for a second season in the all-electric series but is expected to be called up for the opening MotoGP races in place of the currently suspended Andrea Iannone. (MotoGP CZ/SK via Speedweek)

Meanwhile, WithU Motorsports is extending its reach across motorsport by holding a ‘Riders Meet Rally’ day involving Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, who got the chance to drive a fully-fledged Hyundai i20 WRC spec machine with expert tuition from Dani Sordo (Instagram)