Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez holds a rare feat of having been beaten by a teammate across a season he has stayed fully fit, and every single one of them has the same verdict on why it’s so tough to beat him.
During the first season together in the current campaign, Francesco Bagnaia has struggled immensely alongside his title-winning teammate.
Despite it being apparent that Marquez will miss the final four rounds of the season due to an injury setback, it’s looking increasingly likely that the Italian will finish over 200 points behind the seven-time world champion.
The 2025 campaign has been of stark contrast to Bagnaia’s form prior to sharing a box with the Spaniard.
After consecutive world titles in 2022 and 2023, the 28-year-old was just 10 points off securing a three-peat in 2024.
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‘All’ of Marc Marquez’s teammates have said the same thing about racing alongside him in MotoGP
However, the factory Ducati man isn’t alone in being outshone by the high-flying 32-year-old, with former team boss Ricard Jove highlighting how every one of the Spaniard’s former teammates has been in the same boat.
On a recent episode of the Dura La Vita podcast, Jove said, “All the riders who have been with Marc say that he’s a killer.
“All of them, without exception, took it for granted that it was impossible with Marc by your side. That it would get to you mentally, because they really saw things in the telemetry that would destroy you and all that.
“But that’s because Marc is Marc and there is no other, and there are his numbers.”
MotoGP hall of famer Dani Pedrosa spent the first six seasons of Marquez’s premier class career as his teammate at the factory Honda team.
In that time, Marquez won five titles, including a maiden one during his rookie season.
Pedrosa previously described Marquez as a ‘chameleon’, owing to the incredible versatility that the 32-year-old is able to display when in uncomfortable situations.
It’s no secret that the GP25 has been a difficult machine to get a handle on, and Marquez’s dominance atop it has clearly been down to his ability to adapt to it.
This is one of the many reasons why Bagnaia has failed to replicate his results in 2025.
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Francesco Bagnaia’s stock in the MotoGP paddock has gone down following his partnership with Marc Marquez at Ducati
Once considered as the answer to Marquez’s dominance that preceded his injury-ridden years at the start of the decade, Bagnaia’s standing as one of the best riders on the grid has taken a hit following the struggles that have been magnified during the current term.
When assessing Alex Marquez’s title chances in the 2026 season after being awarded a factory-spec Ducati for his efforts this year, Gresini director Carlo Merlini overlooked Bagnaia as a genuine threat.
With his contract as a rider for the Borgo Panigale-based team up at the end of 2026, it poses further issues in terms of him securing a competitive seat for the future.
‘All’ MotoGP brands no longer see Bagnaia as the bulletproof world champion that he once was. It remains to be seen what the future will have in store for him if he isn’t able to turn things around in 2026.
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