Marc Marquez says Ducati deal may be his last after title win
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 22, 2026
Marquez retirement outlook
Marc Marquez sees a strong chance the Ducati contract he signed over the winter will be his last, a sign his view of the sport has changed after winning the 2025 MotoGP title. The contract runs through the end of 2028, but Marquez said he now estimates a 70% chance he will have retired within three years. He put the odds at 30% that he will still be racing in three years. Marquez said retirement is closer than it was yesterday, even if he does not know when it will happen. He also said he will not walk away as long as he can recover from injuries and still have a realistic chance to race and win again. That standard leaves room for more racing, but it also shows how quickly his outlook has changed since the title run. He said winning the championship made him calmer and less obsessed with results than he used to be. The pressure around results now feels different to him, and that change has become part of how he talks about the end of his career.
Marquez title mindset
Marquez said the 2025 MotoGP title changed how he sees the rest of his career. He said he cannot explain how he stayed motivated for so many years, and he described the consistency needed to win multiple titles in a row as something he now finds hard to put into words. He won six MotoGP titles with Honda from 2013 to 2019 before later joining Ducati. Marquez said he felt like a superhero before 2020. He said the injuries that followed changed that view and taught him that riders are human and need to judge risk more carefully. He said he still feels competitive, and he remains in MotoGP because he has not given up mentally. He also said he can live with a result outside the podium, including finishing sixth or seventh, without taking it home with him at night. That helps explain why he now speaks about racing with more perspective than urgency.
Marquez injury lessons
Marquez said seven surgeries on his right shoulder still affect him. He said those injuries forced him to think differently about risk and to understand that even elite riders have limits. The violent 2022 highside in Indonesia was one of the moments that pushed retirement to the front of his mind, and he said he originally considered walking away then. He did not retire and has continued racing. Marquez said his desire to keep going is tied to the fact that he still feels competitive. He needs to believe he can recover, stay in the fight and still have a chance to win again. That perspective matters now because he is only two points behind Aprilia’s Jorge Martin in the 2026 championship. At Phillip Island this weekend, Marquez is also chasing his 10th title.
