“Multi-million dollar” warning to Marc Marquez as he might not proceed with...

Marc Marquez has been told by Ducati that they won’t give him a contract as lucrative as his old Honda deal.

Marquez chose to step away from the biggest-money contract in MotoGP a year before it was due to expire because he wanted to instead compete with Gresini’s Ducati machinery.

Such is the excitement to see Marquez on a Desmosedici, there is already speculation that Ducati will want to tie him down beyond his one-year Gresini contract by offering him a factory position.

But, even if they do so, it won’t be the type of mega-money deal that Marquez has previously been given.

“Almost all the [riders’ contracts] are expiring, in Ducati we will wait for the first 5-6 races to get a picture of the situation even if we have quite clear ideas,” said Paolo Ciabatti, who has exited his MotoGP role to oversee Ducati’s off-road programme, to Motosprint.

“Looking ahead to 2025, in all likelihood one of the two factory riders will be Francesco Bagnaia.

“As far as Marc Marquez is concerned, we will make our assessments based on the results.

“But from our point of view, the times of multi-million dollar contracts are over.

“The fact that we are the manufacturer with the most desired bike allows us to make more sustainable reasoning on an economic level.”