Gresini MotoGP rider Alex Marquez expects that he will be one of the riders to have their contract for 2027 sorted before the start of the 2026 season.
Marquez, who finished second in the championship last year and has been the standout rider of the three days of post-season testing at his probable best MotoGP track Sepang, has his market value at an all-time high in the premier class.
And with frenzied movement between riders and teams as MotoGP's five manufacturers all manoeuvre to have their leading riders secured already for the switch to new bike regulations and Pirelli tyres in 2027, Marquez too appears to be in enough demand not to be biding his time.
"Before the first race, I will decide," he said. "I will have clear what I will do in '27.
"But at the moment I'm quite calm, I know more or less which options we have on the table, but still working on that, and then I will decide - if I can decide before the [second pre-season] test in Thailand, I will do it, if not I will wait a little bit. But before the first race I want to have my future closed."
Marquez would naturally not disclose the full range of options at his disposal - but he confirmed that one of those is remaining at Gresini.
"I have it quite clear.
"The most solid one is the Gresini one. Because I know the team, I know everything, and the emotional side - that is important for a rider - is there. But, you know... later on, if it's one year that you can take a risk, it's next year, because nobody knows which way will be the best one. I will see, and I think for that reason, everything, the market is quite crazy."
It is widely understood that Marquez, who will turn 30 in April, is deliberating between Gresini and a move to a factory seat - which he hadn't had in MotoGP since his rookie season in 2020.
Back then, with COVID delaying the start of the season, Marquez knew before he'd done a single race lap in Repsol Honda colours that he would be demoted to a satellite team the following year.
Yamaha and particularly KTM have been floated as the factories with current interest in the Gresini riders - and it has been rumoured that his discussions with KTM had reached quite an advanced stage.
Such an early commitment to Marquez - which might come hand-in-hand with the signing of Maverick Vinales as his team-mate, as it is thought KTM has made peace with losing star rider Pedro Acosta at the end of the year - would re-affirm the once-beleagured Austrian manufacturer's longer-term MotoGP plans, which its motorsport boss Pit Beirer claimed had the blessing of the board and particularly of new owner Bajaj Auto.
On Yamaha's end, its MotoGP boss Paolo Pavesio insisted when speaking to The Race that Yamaha was still waiting for a decision from lead rider Fabio Quartararo.
Quartararo was reported as having agreed a Honda deal but Pavesio - despite reports that Yamaha has already secured Jorge Martin as replacement - claims he has not been informed of any final decision by Quartararo.
"In the end, rumours are rumours," Pavesio told The Race. "Our target is to develop the best bike we can, to have good riders willing to race with us. We have a fantastic rider with us, Fabio - if Fabio will decide to go together for the future, we will be very happy, and we're working for this. In this moment, he told us - and he's telling us - he has not made up his mind yet.
"So here we are. But in parallel, of course, our job, my job is to be ready with all the possible scenarios."
