Francesco Bagnaia may have now realised his reality against ‘alien’ Marc Marquez at Ducati this season

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Francesco Bagnaia finds himself 147 points behind his Ducati teammate Marc Marquez at the halfway point of the 2025 season.

People within the MotoGP paddock predicted Marquez to dominate Bagnaia at the start of the year, but did not want to go public about that opinion. 11 rounds into 2025 and those thoughts have been proven right.

Marquez has been almost unstoppable this season on the GP25, winning 17 races out of a possible 22, including Sprints. In contrast, Bagnaia has just one win as he struggles to adapt to the new Ducati.

The Italian has been third-best for much of the season, with Alex Marquez outperforming him on the GP24. The Gresini rider is flourishing on the machine that Bagnaia won 11 races with in 2024, while he cannot find the same performance on the new factory machine.

Ducati insiders say Bagnaia is ‘no match’ for Marquez as they work on small steps to improve his feeling on the GP25. It appears that the 28-year-old may have reached the same realisation.

Francesco Bagnaia would be ‘OK’ with finishing second behind ‘alien’ Marc Marquez at Ducati

Speaking via The Race MotoGP Podcast, journalist Simon Patterson says that Bagnaia would be ‘OK’ with finishing second behind Marc Marquez. The Italian has admitted that he does not know his level against an ‘alien’ rider and would thus be content playing second fiddle.

“I mean, ’25 is over. ’25 was over at round two, let’s be honest. But the hope for ’26 for Pecco has to be that he can pull out a 2024 bike next year,” he said.

“Again, if Ducati somehow let him do that, because he has to be looking at Alex Marquez constantly ahead of him and constantly thinking: ‘I’m better than him’.

“I might not be better than Marc Marquez, but I’m better than him’. And at least that put him closer to the goal of being the best in the world, second best is better than third best.

“I think being second to Marc would be OK for Pecco. He’d accept that as an OK thing and place to be. We’ve had this conversation before with him, where he’s kind of openly said: ‘I don’t know my real level against an alien talent because I never raced with Marc or Valentino or Casey or whoever’.

“So, I think that would be good enough, much in the same way as it kind of was for Dani Pedrosa. I mean, it’s going to have to be, that’s the reality!”

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

Francesco Bagnaia is 64 points off second place as he searches for improvements in 2025

Bagnaia may be content with second place, but as things stand, he has a huge task on his hands to finish there in 2025. Alex Marquez is 64 points ahead after 11 races, having secured his first win in MotoGP at Jerez.

Bagnaia has apologised to his Ducati engineers as they try to work on a solution for his struggles. His new brake discs, introduced at Mugello, have done little to catch the Marquez brothers, even if they have improved his feeling on the bike.

Luigi Dall’Igna is not giving up on Bagnaia, given the success he has brought to the manufacturer in recent years. But he has also not been afraid to criticise the rider, as being beaten by a year-old bike is not something the factory Ducati team will want to see.

Dall’Igna says Bagnaia cannot aim for third place in 2025. He has finished P3 10 times already; he will be desperate to make a breakthrough in the second half of the season.