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Marc Marquez’s crew chief at Gresini Ducati in 2024 has been confirmed as Frankie Carchedi, bringing an end to his long and successful association with Santi Hernandez at Honda.
The Spanish rider’s move to the satellite Ducati outfit alongside his brother Alex was officially confirmed on the eve of the Indonesian MotoGP weekend, ending weeks of speculation over his future.
Carchedi already has a MotoGP world championship to his credit after helping Joan Mir to a maiden title in 2020 with Suzuki. He is currently crew chief to Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Marquez and Hernandez have worked together for 13 years, winning the Moto2 title together in 2012 followed by six MotoGP world championship successes (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019).
Always the first person Marquez talks to when he returns to the garage and gets off his bike, the 30-year-old admits it will be “strange” not to have Hernandez in his corner next season.
“Of course, next year for me will be strange to not see Santi by my side because we have been working for 13 years together,” Marquez said on Friday at the Indonesian round at Mandalika.
“But I believe in Frankie’s level, he was a world champion with Joan Mir, so I put trust in him and we will try to do good work.”
Gresini Sporting Director, Michele Masini, made the announcement on Friday that Carchedi would be filling the role of crew chief for Marquez at Gresini.
“I can confirm Frankie Carchedi will be Marc’s crew chief next season,” he told the MotoGP television world feed.
“We are still talking about the mechanics, but we will power up the team with one figure more.”
Marquez had earlier outlined the reasons why he could not bring his Honda staff with him to Gresini next year.
“I am trying to bring at least one mechanic, I think this will not be a problem,” he said.
“But I can’t bring all the team for two reasons; one, I will not destroy the Repsol Honda team because we are in October.
“And second one, I will not destroy the Gresini team because they are a big family and they have their mechanics.
“I must adapt to the situation. I took the decision, so I must adapt.”
Marquez progressed to Q2 at Mandalika after setting the sixth-fastest time on Friday as he prepares for his final races as a Repsol Honda rider at the last six rounds.
“After a lot of noise [around his move to Gresini], today was to concentrate one more time on the race track,” Marquez said.
“The feeling was not bad from the beginning, especially with slippery conditions; I feel good and it is one of the strong points of my riding style.
“Then when the track became better, we started to struggle more and more. For tomorrow, we need to do another small step if we want to be in the top nine positions.
“Before coming here I thought maybe it will be a difficult track for Honda, but better than we expected… and our bike is working much better than last year.”
