RiderTua.com – After 7 years working with Aprilia, in 2022 Gresini Racing will return to competing as a satellite team in MotoGP and join forces with Ducati. Quickly, the team now run by Nadia Padovani (wife of the late team founder Fausto Gresini) proved its success.
In 2022, Enea Bastianini managed to realize his dream of achieving success as he started a new chapter in the team’s important history. Bestia successfully won the Qatar GP and achieved 3 more MotoGP wins and ranked 3rd in the World Championship.
Alex Marquez made the Gresini squad smile by celebrating two sprint wins and Fabio Di Giannantonio achieved an impressive victory at the Qatar GP in the 2023 season. However, Diggia was kicked out of his place because by recruiting Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing reached an agreement in the crazy transfer market.
Gresini Boss: There are no radical changes just because of Marc Marquez
Ahead of the 2024 MotoGP season, Marc Marquez’s debut with the Ducati Desmosedici GP23 is very interesting to watch. After 11 years as a Repsol Honda factory rider, the Spanish rider ‘bravely’ left his comfort zone to join the satellite team owned by the late Fausto Gresini.
The Baby Alien emerged from the Gresini Ducati pits for the first time at the Valencia test (28 November), amidst huge media attention. From a marketing and commercial perspective, it would be quite surprising if Gresini Racing did not present a new main sponsor for 2024 under these conditions. Big sponsors are still missing, although the almost unchanged sky blue and red design features some new logos such as IP or AUS Global.
Commercial Director Carlo Merlini explained, “We don’t want to lose our identity. We don’t want to make radical changes just because Marc joins us. If he might leave again. Our main concern, our focus is on retaining existing sponsors, and several others have joined with this family. Overall we are happy with the sponsors we have. From a financial standpoint, the team is very, very safe.”
“Once we find the right company with the right project, they will be very welcome. But what I want to be clear about, if we don’t have a main sponsor yet, this means that some teams might cover 70 or 60 percent of their budget with the main sponsor and the rest with some sponsors. We may share it among more sponsors, but we manage it the same way.”
“As I said, from a financial point of view, the team is very stable. This stability can be found even without a main sponsor, so maybe we only have 3 or 4 sponsors more than others, which is a much better situation from that point of view risk.”
“We don’t depend too much on individual sponsors, the budget is quite big. Of course some sponsors are bigger in terms of bikes than others, but generally we lose 5 to a maximum of 10 percent if we lose a sponsor. We have a very stable situation and are not worried about the same thing,” concluded Carlo Merlini.
