Valentino Rossi urges Francesco Bagnaia to do what Ducati star ‘never’ has to beat Marc Marquez to 2025 title

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Valentino Rossi feels Francesco Bagnaia would have beaten Jorge Martin to the 2024 title if he learned one key lesson that will be vital for denying Marc Marquez this year.

Last term saw Martin make Pramac the first independent team to win a premier class riders’ title since Rossi achieved the feat for Nastro Azzurro in 2001. Yet despite pipping Bagnaia by 10 points, the Spaniard missed out to Marquez in the fight to replace Enea Bastianini in red.

Ducati rejected Martin to promote Marquez from Gresini after the six-time riders’ champion rejected replacing his compatriot at Pramac if overlooked for the factory gig. Now, it is likely to be a Ducati battle at the top of the championship, as Bagnaia and Marquez go toe-to-toe.

Francesco Bagnaia must accept he cannot win every race to beat Marc Marquez to the 2025 title

While Marquez has tried quite hard to not say he is a title contender after joining the factory Ducati ranks, the Borgo Panigale brand will fully expect their pilots to tussle for the title. The Bologna Bullets dominated MotoGP to lift the 2024 constructors’ title by 395 points to KTM.

Ducati riders also locked out the top four spots in the riders’ championship with Martin (508 points), Bagnaia (498), Marquez (392) and Bastianini (386) in another league to Brad Binder (217) as the best-placed KTM ace. Marquez was also riding a year-old Desmosedici GP23.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Francesco Bagnaia from net worth to race number

So, with it likely to be an all-red affair at the front after Martin’s move to Aprilia, Rossi thinks Bagnaia must accept for the first time that the 28-year-old cannot win every race and needs to take the points to beat Marquez. If he did it last year, Bagnaia would have beaten Martin.

“There are days when you have to win and days when you have to bring home points,” Rossi told Corriere Della Sera. “He has never done it, otherwise he would have also won the third world championship.

“Don’t fall into traps, into mind games [and] don’t let your teammate influence you. In duels, have fun and try the impossible.”

Pecco Bagnaia only has to look to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix to learn his mistake

Bagnaia will surely know that the Italian will have to just accept what points are on offer on occasion for the 2022 and 2023 champion to beat Marquez and regain the title Martin took last year. After all, Bagnaia’s mistakes in the 2024 title fight haunted his honeymoon as well.

But Pecco may struggle to accept he has been beaten on a circuit despite it costing him vital points and prevented Bagnaia from becoming a three-time champion regardless of winning 11 of the 20 Grand Prix last year. The Turin native also reached the podium 16 times in 2024.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Marc Marquez from net worth to girlfriend

Yet he only has to look back to the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Misano to find a race where Bagnaia’s refusal to accept that he was beaten was costly if Marquez stamps his mark early on at Ducati. It was a day he fell from pole position and crashed by trying to claw back.

Martin and eventual winner Bastianini had an edge on Bagnaia across the early stages of the second race at Misano last year. But right as the Ducati rider was starting to close back up to his rivals with seven laps to go, Bagnaia locked the front and hit the deck braking for Turn 8.