Marco Bezzecchi
Former Ducati star Andrea Dovizioso has pinpointed exactly why Francesco Bagnaia has never been a fan favourite in MotoGP despite being a two-time premier class world champion.
The last 12 months have been the most difficult period of Francesco Bagnaia’s career. Once a bulletproof world champion who competed for the title in every single one of his campaigns with the factory Ducati team, the Italian was resigned to playing second fiddle.
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Marc Marquez’s arrival in Borgo Panigale marked a stark shift in Bagnaia’s status at the team. He was no longer Ducati’s golden child, and his results seemingly reflected that.
After the Spaniard clinched the title at last year’s Japanese Grand Prix, MotoGP fans made their feelings clear on Bagnaia, ruing the Italian for failing to put up an exciting title fight against the world-beating 33-year-old.
Andrea Dovizioso explains why Francesco Bagnaia receives ‘less attention’ from MotoGP fans
During the inaugural episode of his own MotoGP podcast, former rider Andrea Dovizioso nailed down the main reason as to why Bagnaia has never been much of a fan favourite in the sport, despite the fact that he is a two-time world champion.
“Explosive talent stands out so much,” Dovizioso asserted. “People come to see them, and then the others follow. Pecco Bagnaia, who’s been winning in recent years, has attracted far less attention, even when he was stronger.
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“As a result, you don’t get much attention, and you don’t retain much, but he was stronger because he was out front, he managed the race, and he worked in a certain way. This is something that riders who aren’t quite so explosive pay a bit of a price for.
“I managed to reach the end of my career because, in the fight, I managed to go head-to-head with Marquez.
“But it was always a limitation for my fans, because without seeing explosive stuff… I might have always achieved excellent results, but people like explosiveness.”
- READ MORE: MotoGP fans have never seen Pecco Bagnaia so angry as fan footage shows Le Mans crash reaction
Francesco Bagnaia is the third most-followed MotoGP rider on the 2026 grid
Despite Dovizioso’s suggestion that Bagnaia’s riding style marks him as one of the least interesting riders to watch, the Italian’s following on social media begs to differ.
As of the time of writing, the #63 is the third most-followed rider on the 2026 grid, behind only Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo, who boast 8.3 million and 2.5 million Instagram followers, respectively.
Bagnaia currently has around 1.4 million followers on the photo-sharing platform, 400,000 more than Jorge Martin, who completes the top four most popular riders.
Interestingly, MotoGP rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu has the sixth biggest following on the grid. Of course, the Turkish rider has a whole country behind him, and his three titles in the World Superbikes category have already propelled him into global super stardom.
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