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Marc Marquez leaving a factory Honda for a satellite team with a year-old bike is a seismic moment in the history of MotoGP.
The Spaniard has been synonymous with the Repsol colors ever since he made his debut in 2013. However, after years of dragging and underperforming machinery and trying to regain his fitness, the partnership has ended.
Irrespective of how bad the situation is at Honda, a rider of Marquez's stature leaving a factory team for a year-old satellite bike comes as a massive surprise.
The history of MotoGP has been marred with such instances where a high-profile rider has had a shock exit from one team to another.
On that note, let's take a look at the top five shock rider moves of the 21st century.
#1 Valentino Rossi: Honda to Yamaha
Even though many tend to associate Honda with Marc Marquez, years before that happened, there was an iconic partnership between Valentino Rossi and the Japanese marque.
At the end of the 2003 MotoGP season, Rossi was already a three-time world champion with Honda. Despite the success, there was a sense of uneasiness starting to develop between him and the brand.
Honda wanted to claim that the success was down to the bike while Rossi claimed it was down to the rider. The tension grew so much so that at the end of the 2003 MotoGP season, the Italian decided it was time to move to rival Yamaha.
At the time Yamaha was not as big a giant as Honda but with Rossi in the team, everything changed. The team won comfortably and the Italian started a new chapter of his career.
#2 Valentino Rossi: Yamaha to Ducati
The year was 2010 and for the first time in his career, Valentino Rossi was facing a challenge within his team and the challenge came from teammate Jorge Lorenzo. The young Spaniard had grown up watching Rossi dominate the sport and he wanted to achieve the same.
After tensions began to rise within the team, Rossi decided it was time to pursue a different challenge and hence he made a shocking switch to Ducati. The Italian manufacturer having the Italian superstar onboard was a marketing marvel but in terms of on-track results, there wasn't much.
Rossi would spend 2011 and 2012 on the Ducati unsuccessfully without scoring even a single win in those years.
#3 Casey Stoner: Ducati to Honda
Casey Stoner was a rider who shocked everyone when he rose to prominence out of the blue in 2007.
A rider who was always in the shades of Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa in the junior categories surprised everyone when he got the opportunity to ride a factory Ducati. A very tough bike to corner with a ridiculous grunt down the straight that has impressive straight-line speed, the Ducati suited perfectly as Stoner won the title in 2007.
By 2010, however, the Italian brand had not yielded much success and Stoner started to look around. It was only during this time that a Repsol Honda deal was put in front of him and the Australian grabbed it with both hands.
It was a shocker of a decision as Stoner was leaving Ducati to partner Dani Pedrosa, a rider who got the better of him all through the junior categories. It didn't matter though as Stoner ended up winning the title in 2011 with the team.
#4 Jorge Lorenzo: Yamaha to Ducati
After pushing Valentino Rossi out of Yamaha in 2010, Jorge Lorenzo achieved decent success with the Japanese brand. He was the team leader and everything was catered around him. This changed when Rossi decided that he wanted to leave Ducati and join the Japanese marque.
What followed was a steady process where Lorenzo would get distanced from the team. In 2013, he lost the title to Marc Marquez. In 2014, he lost to Rossi in the championship, and in 2015, even though he won the title, the Italian was the favored son of the team.
By the time the 2016 season rolled on, Lorenzo had made up his mind. He decided it was time to move out of Yamaha and what followed was a shock switch to Ducati.
For a rider of Jorge Lorenzo's talent, the bike never worked and he ended up spending the rest of his career not contending for a title ever again.
#5 Marc Marquez: Honda to Gresini Ducati
Finally, let's talk about Marc Marquez and the end of his marriage with Honda. The Spaniard had been a true sensation for the Japanese brand. He did a brilliant job from 2013-2019, losing only one title. In terms of success, his paralleled what Valentino Rossi had at his peak.
This changed with his injury in 2020. Marquez hurt his shoulder badly and what followed was an extended three-year recovery that saw him break himself multiple times, have numerous surgeries only to recover fully by 2023, and find out that Honda had regressed.
Marquez could not even be a podium contender in that bike and with him crossing the 30 years of age barrier, he decided it was time to make a move.
