Marc Marquez has made clear there’s no chance he does something that could help Francesco Bagnaia

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Marc Marquez gave Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia some advice during the Barcelona weekend. The footage was shared by the team on their social media channels.

It was a surprising moment given the pre-season narrative that Bagnaia and Marquez would be close rivals. Though the Italian has been a shadow of himself in 2025, he is also a two-time premier-class champion.

Marquez told Bagnaia he needed to ‘reset’ ahead of the San Marino Grand Prix this weekend. The key, in his eyes, is easing the relentless interrogation from the media by improving on track.

The remarkably honest Bagnaia says the ‘intelligent’ Marquez has helped him. He arrived at Misano 250 points adrift in the riders’ championship.

Marc Marquez rules out pivoting to Ducati GP24 for 2026 season

According to The Race, ‘paddock insiders’ believe there are ‘fairly substantial differences’ between last year’s Ducati and the GP25. Some feel that the ’24 is still quicker, which is why Alex Marquez is sitting in a career-best second place, having won two Grands Prix.

In theory, Ducati could revert back to last year’s engine for 2026, so long as both riders agreed. This could be transformative for Bagnaia, who took 11 victories with that machinery and finished just 10 points behind world champion Jorge Martin.

That would require a ‘thorough testing campaign’ comparing the two bikes – potentially starting at Misano on Monday – but Marquez is ‘not prepared’ to take this step. Luigi Dall’Igna says the Ducati bike has barely changed, and his 2025 signing has backed that view.

Marquez has implicitly made clear that there’s ‘no chance’ he goes back to the old design. Given his performances this year, he has little incentive to do so, even if it may raise the floor of the Ducati team as a whole.

Neil Hodgson’s ‘disturbing’ verdict on Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez dynamic

Marquez said: “I want the best for the team, but in the end… check the notes from Thailand and Malaysia [the winter tests]. We were saying, me and Pecco, that we followed the same direction and we chose the same thing with the same comments.

“What I understand from the engineers is that we are riding with the base of the GP24 with some evolutions in the aero package.”

Marquez’s stance effectively rules Ducati reverting to the previous specification. Marco Melandri says ‘very little will change’ for Bagnaia in 2026.

Neil Hodgson says it’s ‘disturbing’ that Bagnaia has openly shown ‘weakness’ to Marquez, and that Ducati have publicised it. But it also illustrates just how profound his problems are.