Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez are set to produce one of the most exciting battles for a MotoGP championship in recent history as they partner up at Ducati for 2025.
The two have eight titles between them and both finished inside the top three of the riders’ standings last year.
Ducati bikes won 90% (36/40) of the races on offer in 2024, but Bagnaia still found a way to miss out on the title despite winning eight more races than eventual champion Jorge Martin.
He has the added pressure of having Marquez rather than Enea Bastianini as his teammate now, with the Spaniard in good form after winning three races on a one-year-old Ducati bike in his first season on their machinery.
Martin’s title defence has been weakened after a move to Aprilia, away from the dominant Ducati bike. It will be a while before they can catch up on development alone.
Marquez may implement a Max Verstappen formula at Ducati as he chases glory for the first time since 2019, but Bagnaia won’t be too threatened at a team he’s about to enter his fifth campaign with.
Francesco Bagnaia wishes he had Marc Marquez’s ability on a ‘dirty track’
Bagnaia finds Marquez’s arrival at Ducati very beautiful and something which may help to boost the team’s performance in 2025.
It’s not what their rivals want to hear, but there’s a chance that the experience and speed they bring to the table collectively could see them dominate even more this year.
READ MORE: Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia had ‘heated exchange’ in stewards’ room before Ducati partnership
He was complimentary of his new teammates’ skills in a video posted on Ducati’s YouTube channel, picking one trait of his that he wishes he had.
“He has two skills that are impressive,” he said. “The way he enters on a track, a dirty track when [it’s] very slippery and find a fantastic feeling when we saw clearly in Aragon last year that was quite tricky.
“We started and he was much faster than anybody else. In qualifying he gave it eight-tenths of a second [it] was an impressive one.”
Why Marc Marquez supported Francesco Bagnaia’s 2024 MotoGP errors
Bagnaia missed out on a third consecutive title in 2024 by just 10 points, despite claiming eight more victories than Martin.
It was a substantial blow, considering that he managed to finish inside the top three in each of the last six races.
Bagnaia spent his honeymoon haunted by 2024 mistakes after he realised that making one less may have seen him crowned champion.
READ MORE: Marco Melandri names the strange reason Francesco Bagnaia is making mistakes that ‘cost him dearly’
Marquez blamed Bagnaia’s costly mistakes on risk-taking, defending his new teammate and pointing out that winning comes at a cost sometimes.
It will be interesting to see whether he tries to give 5% less this season in a bid to limit his errors. It may not be the solution with someone of Marquez’s calibre across the garage – the stakes have increased.
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