Fermin Aldeguer is working with Marc Marquez’s former crew chief, Frankie Carchedi, this season. That puts the Gresini rookie in a privileged position.
Aldeguer was Gresini’s replacement when Marquez stepped up to the factory team. While he’s riding a year-old GP24, he and the rest of Ducati’s riders will be studying Marquez’s data closely to see where they’re leaving lap time on the table.
Nobody in the Bologna outfit’s stable has beaten the six-time champion in a qualifying session or a Sprint this year. Only Yamaha’s surprise package Fabio Quartararo has denied the Ant of Cervera on a Saturday.
| RANK | RIDER | WINS | POLES | PODIUMS | POINTS |
| 1 | M Mar | 3 | 4 | 4 | 171 |
| 2 | A Mar | 1 | 0 | 4 | 149 |
| 3 | F Bag | 1 | 0 | 4 | 120 |
| 4 | F Mor | 0 | 0 | 2 | 85 |
| 5 | F Dig | 0 | 0 | 1 | 74 |
| 6 | F Ald | 0 | 0 | 1 | 48 |
Marquez has fallen twice during Grands Prix, forcing him to retire in Austin and relegating him to the lower reaches of the points in Jerez. But he still leads the world championship by 22 points heading to Silverstone.
Fermin Aldeguer insists there’s nothing ‘stratospheric’ about Marc Marquez’s Ducati data
Aldeguer’s MotoGP career started slowly. He only managed three points in his first three weekends.
But Qatar proved to be a launchpad as he followed up fourth in the Sprint with P5 in the main Grand Prix. Aldeguer has matched Francesco Bagnaia’s points tally since his race-ending fall in Austin.
The 20-year-old bagged a double podium at Le Mans, a landmark moment for his career. Clearly, the work he’s doing with Carchedi is paying off.
His eventual target is to challenge Marquez, but he surprisingly said that there’s nothing ‘stratospheric’ in the data of the dominant rider. Instead, he simply goes beyond the limit of his competitors, particularly in left-hand turns.
“Marc is a bit of a general,” he told the Por Orejas podcast. “You see Marc’s telemetry, and you don’t see anything stratospheric. In the end, we’re talking about tenths or sometimes thousandths.
“On left-hand corners, he does something that no one else can do. He’s always the guy who makes the most angle in the middle of the corner. The time between braking and acceleration is very short.
“He has a big advantage in turn eight, where he crashed, at Jerez. I’m telling you, he put almost a tenth on all of us. We go to the limit, but he goes further in those left-hand corners.
Marc Marquez is still living up to the nickname Cal Crutchlow gave him at Honda
According to Carchedi, Aldeguer has some similar traits to Marquez already. He could be the future for the dominant Ducati brand.
Luigi Dall’Igna took a gamble on Aldeguer, who flattered to deceive in his final Moto2 season. But now he’s progressing at a rapid rate.
Clearly, there’s still some tidying up to do for a rider who has occasionally pushed too hard this year. He needs to hone the instincts that can detect and avert an imminent fall.
Cal Crutchlow nicknamed Marquez ‘the cat’ during his Honda days because of his incredible reaction times. He retains that attribute at the age of 32, as evidenced by his remarkable save at the start of the Americas Sprint.
