Any doubt over Marc Marquez’s Ducati future has been officially put to bed after the team announced a new MotoGP deal up to and including the 2028 season.

The news of Marquez's renewal at Ducati is expected to kick off a slate of rider announcements, which had been on hold while MotoGP hashed out a new commercial deal with its five manufacturers to cover the 2027-31 period.

Most of those deals, including that of Marquez, are believed to have been not just agreed but signed for months already.

Marquez is fourth in the championship after a tough start to this season, following undiscovered damage from his late-2025 injury, and a fresh minor injury at Le Mans, plus the emergence of Aprilia seemingly overtaking Ducati as the team to beat to start 2026.

But Marquez has begun to claw back that disadvantage with wins in Hungary and the Czech Republic to reduce his deficit to 40 points behind Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi.

“When I decided to join Ducati, I was convinced it was the most competitive project,” said Marquez.

“They believed in me, and we built a relationship based on trust and hard work. With this renewal, they have once again reaffirmed this commitment, respecting my times and giving me the peace of mind I needed to make the right decision.”

Marquez joined the factory Ducati team for 2025, after his switch from Honda - where he’d been for a decade - to a Gresini Ducati satellite bike had delivered third in the championship in 2024.

He then dominated the 2025 season, taking his seventh premier-class championship, justifying that decision to promote Marquez to the factory team - which, in turn, had cost the manufacturer Jorge Martin as it had no factory bikes to offer him after his 2024 title with the Pramac satellite squad.

“As an engineer, working with Marc has impressed me,” added Ducati team boss Luigi Dall’Igna.

“He brought the Desmosedici GP to peak performances, enhancing every component. The ambitions remain unchanged, and I am happy to be able to live, both sportingly and personally, a new chapter in this Ducati story together with Marc.”

KTM star Pedro Acosta is expected to be announced as Marquez's 2027 team-mate shortly, while current team-mate Pecco Bagnaia moves over to Aprilia.

Marquez's announcement and further silly season dominoes were expected to drop on Monday already, but MotoGP's manufacturers seemed to decide against this as they carried out a test of 850cc prototypes on new Pirelli tyres at Brno - a test in which Marquez ran and reportedly crashed.

In addition to Acosta and Bagnaia's deals, Fabio Quartararo's widely-known move to Honda and Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura joining Yamaha are other contracts that are likely on the cusp of being announced, and KTM should be in position to confirm Marquez's brother Alex and fellow current Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio as its new works roster.