Marc Marquez breaks down his adaption to the Ducati GP23

Marc Marquez has provided a breakdown of his adaption to the Ducati GP23 so far.

Marquez enters the Spanish MotoGP at Jerez this weekend, the fourth round of the season, targeting more progression.

His early weeks on a new bike, after ditching Honda last year, have been productive although they haven’t yet yielded a return to winning ways.

Marquez told TNT Sports about swapping Honda for Ducati: “For me, it’s a big change. “Changing the bike, okay. You have to follow the procedures. But then you change the team, the technicians.

“I worked for 13 years with Santi Hernandez, but now Frankie Carchedi is the technician.

“He needs to know me. I need to know him. It’s impossible, in three months, to achieve the same relationship that I had in 13 years.

“But we work in a good way. The team is different, it is very familiar.

“Another thing is that you know what you have. “This bike, you need to do your best with this bike. You cannot say ‘a new item will arrive’. No. 

“You need to do your best with this bike.”

Last year at the postseason Valencia test, Marquez’s debut on a Ducati, his telling smile created fireworks in the paddock about what might come this season.

Marquez looked back on that day: “I have a lot of experience in MotoGP, I won a lot in the past. “But sport means the present.

“So, that day I was super nervous and I had some doubts about whether I could ride for another manufacturer on another bike.

“That first run, I felt good. Not super fast. But the smile was ‘relax’.”

"He has destroyed every Ducati rider on the '23 bike"

Marquez has, arguably, been unfortunate in the first three rounds of 2024.

A P4 in Qatar was followed by his race being ruined in Portimao by a collision caused by Francesco Bagnaia.

He then crashed out of the lead at the Circuit of the Americas, citing a brake problem.

Marquez has twice been on the podium in three sprint races this season.

He is firmly established as the fastest rider on a year-old Ducati, compared to teammate Alex Marquez and the VR46 duo Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio di Giannantonio.

TNT Sports' Neil Hodgson commented on Marquez’s adaption from Honda to Ducati: “It was 50-50. He genuinely didn’t know how he would feel or perform.

“It only took two races. He has incredible self-belief but you still have to do it.

“In racing, you’re only as good as your last race. That’s how this sport is. He doesn’t want to hark back, to look back. Marc is loving it.

“[In the first five races] he beat Pecco in three of them, on his own bike.

“So Marc’s level is incredible. He has destroyed every other Ducati rider on the ‘23.”

Michael Laverty added: “The Honda wasn’t a terrible bike. It had strengths.

“In the first sector [at the Circuit of the Americas] it was pretty agile although Joan Mir is saying they’ve lost that strength on the ‘24 Honda.

“Marc can’t do that on the Ducati, that’s where Maverick Vinales had an advantage.

“But it’s so much better than what he had last year, as an overall package.

“He has tools which allow him to fight.

“He is reining himself in, learning and adapting. “Even as one of the elder statesmen of the category, he is able to evolve his style once again.”