The Ducati satellite squad announced on Thursday ahead of the Indonesian Grand Prix that it had signed eight-time world champion Marquez for 2024, ending weeks of speculation.
The path to this move was paved last week when Honda revealed it had agreed to mutually part ways with Marquez with a year left on his contract following a tough 2023 campaign for both parties.
Signing a one-year deal to race for Gresini, Marquez will have to leave most of his crew – including long-time crew chief Santi Hernandez - behind at Honda, though he did confirm on Thursday that he will be able to take one mechanic with him.
On Friday at the Mandalika circuit speaking to MotoGP’s world feed, Gresini sporting director Michele Masini confirmed Marquez will work with Carchedi next year.
Carchedi previously worked with Joan Mir at Suzuki, including his championship year in 2020, and has been Fabio Di Giannantonio’s crew chief this season.
“Yeah, I confirm that Frankie Carchedi will his crew chief next season,” Masini said.
“We are still talking about the mechanics. For sure we will power up the team with one figure more.”
Autosport reported last week that Honda has given Marquez its blessing to test the Ducati in Valencia after the final grand prix in November.
Masini says Gresini “still talking” to iron out all of the details with Honda, “but we’re hoping” everything will fall into place to get Marquez on the bike in the post-race Valencia test.
Marquez made his first public appearance since the announcement of his Gresini move on Thursday in Indonesia.
He called leaving Honda “the toughest decision of my life”, deciding to make the switch only last Tuesday having agonised over what to do.
He also noted that staying with Honda would have been “the easy solution”, but he needed a new challenge in order to try to enjoy riding again after a difficult few years.
Marquez didn’t rule out the possibility of returning to Honda in the future, stating that he hoped to “cross our futures again”.
