Alex Marquez admitted the Ducati MotoGP bike “wasn’t the one we know” after a difficult Austrian Grand Prix, where the brand failed to place a rider on the podium at the Red Bull Ring for the first time since 2016.
Despite Ducati’s historic dominance at the track, this year’s event saw Aprilia and KTM take over, with Pedro Acosta winning and three Aprilias ahead of the first Ducati. Marquez, who crashed out after a challenging race, said: “Quite surprised to suffer like this here… from FP1, we were seeing what happened. Something really strange. The bike was not like the one that we know. It changed a lot with the casing – also happened to us this in Thailand. We can’t use the grip from this rear tyre, and we lose a lot in that part – in traction part especially.”
Marquez warned that the same rear tyre construction will be used at the upcoming Indonesian GP, which could spell similar struggles for Ducati: “There, the grip level from the layout also is higher than here. Last year, Fermin [Aldeguer] won, I was on the podium, so hopeful to be good there and to struggle less. But Aprilia was already flying, especially with Bezzecchi. It will be difficult, but we’ll try our best, and for sure Ducati will work a lot.”
Reflecting on his race, Marquez admitted to making “too many mistakes,” including a crash at turn 2a while battling Raul Fernandez. “The start was not bad, but later on I did not attack in the first corner enough. I had the alarm of hot brakes, hot engine, everything, but I say ‘Okay, I try, I’m 14th… so I will not lose a lot if I crash’. Then in a fight with Raul, I was a little bit on the dirty zone, and then I lose the front.”
Marquez apologised to his Gresini team, acknowledging he wasn’t able to help solve the bike’s problems this weekend: “Just sorry to the team because I did too many mistakes during this weekend, and I was not able to over-ride on the problems that we had on the Ducati… So, I didn’t help for that problem, and to have less problems at that point.”
He added that persistent temperature warnings made braking and control especially tough: “It’s more difficult to brake, stop the bike, so you use more brake, and then everything is like a roll that never stops.”
Ducati will need to regroup quickly, with Indonesia likely to bring similar technical challenges.
