Having lost out on a factory Ducati team seat to Enea Bastianini, Jorge Martin spent a third season at Pramac Ducati in 2023.
And it was his most successful season in MotoGP to date as he became a title contedner until the very last round at Valencia.
Having lost out on a factory Ducati team seat to Enea Bastianini, Jorge Martin spent a third season at Pramac Ducati in 2023.
And it was his most successful season in MotoGP to date as he became a title contedner until the very last round at Valencia.
Martin will look to build on his success and go one better before joining a factory team in 2025.
The first-ever satellite Ducati MotoGP race winner during his rookie 2021 season, Ducati had successfully tempted Martin away from KTM while the Spaniard was racing for the Austrian factory's Ajo-run Moto2 team.
Prior to Moto2, Martin won the 2018 Moto3 world title with seven race wins for Gresini.
Martin made an instant impression on MotoGP when he blasted from 14th on the grid to 4th at the start of his very first premier-class race in Qatar.
Although he dropped to 15th by the finish, Martin proved he's a quick learner by not only snatching a shock pole position the following week but leading for much of the race on his way to a debut podium.
But his stunning progress came to a punishing halt with a huge accident and multiple fractures next time at Portimao, forcing him out of four races.
A shadow of his former self physically in the initial comeback events, Martin even withdrew from the Assen race, just before the summer break, at only half-distance.
The Qatar success seemed a long time ago, but the young Spaniard took advantage of vital healing time during the summer break to make another giant leap forward, returning with pole position and an historic victory in Austria.
Winning in the MotoGP era as a rookie put Martin alongside such illustrious names as Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa. But the others achieved their wins with factory teams, while Martin's was not only the first by a rookie satellite rider, but first by anyone at a satellite Ducati team.
Two further podiums helped Martin climb from 18th (after Assen) to ninth in the final standings.
Martin's progress stalled slightly during his second year in the premier-class, repeating his ninth in the world championship with four podiums, but no victory.
The young Spaniard's speed was once again not in question, taking five pole positions, but five non-scores in the opening seven rounds shook his confidence.
The mid-season battle with Bastianini to take over Jack Miller's seat heaped further pressure on Martin and, having ultimately lost out, might he be questioning his long-term future at the factory?