{"id":601975,"date":"2026-04-12T11:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T11:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/601975\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T11:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T11:49:10","slug":"marc-marquez-vs-pedro-acosta-at-ducati-the-best-riders-dont-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/601975\/","title":{"rendered":"Marc Marquez vs Pedro Acosta at Ducati? \u201cThe best riders don\u2019t care\u2026\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If it takes a champion to know a champion, then Marc Marquez won\u2019t care who his 2027 MotoGP team-mate will be.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the opinion of five-time 500cc title winner Mick Doohan, when asked about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1040772\/pedro-acosta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pedro Acosta\u2019s <\/a>expected move alongside Marquez at the factory <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/ducati-lenovo-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ducati<\/a> team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere hasn&#8217;t been an official announcement, and I can&#8217;t comment on rumours, but I can say that, as a rider, whether in my era or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1654\/marc-marquez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marc Marquez&#8217;s<\/a>, Marc is focused on himself,\u201d Doohan told Marca.com.<\/p>\n<p>Doohan added that it is natural for manufacturers to target the strongest rider line-ups, while champions must beat everyone on the grid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo win a race or the World Championship, you have to beat everyone, including your team-mate. The best riders don&#8217;t care who their team-mate is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe same is true in F1; Verstappen isn&#8217;t worried about who his team-mate is.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The [incoming] team-mate is the one who has to worry more about winning than the one who is already established.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marquez insists he doesn\u2019t interfere in the selection of his team-mate and was previously paired with fellow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP <\/a>champions Jorge Lorenzo and Joan Mir at Repsol Honda.<\/p>\n<p>Roles were then reversed when Marquez entered the factory Ducati team alongside former double champion Pecco Bagnaia.<\/p>\n<p>But like Lorenzo and Mir, Bagnaia hasn&#8217;t been able to threaten Marquez on the same machinery.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>If the expected Marquez-Acosta pairing materialises, Doohan expects a close contest between two riders at very different stages of their careers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAcosta has incredible talent. What he&#8217;s doing with the KTM is amazing. It will be difficult for both of them. They&#8217;re both Spanish and incredibly talented,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMarc won&#8217;t be young anymore, and you have the young guy gaining experience who&#8217;s incredibly fast and wants to beat the old guy, which is Marc.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimilarly, Marc doesn&#8217;t want to be beaten by the young guy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if [Acosta] becomes a Ducati rider&#8230; that wouldn&#8217;t matter. If Bezzecchi got on that bike, it would be the same,\u201d Doohan reiterated.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Acosta holds third in the world championship, with reigning nine-time champion Marquez fifth after Ducati&#8217;s tougher-than-expected start to 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Bagnaia is tipped to join Aprilia alongside current title leader Marco Bezzecchi.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If it takes a champion to know a champion, then Marc Marquez won\u2019t care who his 2027 MotoGP&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,17197,8456,4280,806,805,803,804,10734,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-601975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ducati","11":"tag-ducati-lenovo-team","12":"tag-marc-marquez","13":"tag-motor","14":"tag-motor-sports","15":"tag-motosport","16":"tag-motosports","17":"tag-pedro-acosta","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}