Marc Marquez has established a clear advantage over teammate Francesco Bagnaia at Ducati. However, his start to 2025 has not been completely smooth.
Bagnaia’s camp would have certainly been eyeing the MotoGP title in 2025, having lost to Jorge Martin last season by 10 points, despite winning 11 out of 20 races. However, the mood was disturbed by the arrival of Marquez.
Going up against a six-time premier class champion was always going to be a difficult challenge. But thus far in 2025, Bagnaia has desperately struggled to keep up with Marquez.
| Marc Marquez | Francesco Bagnaia | |
| Wins | 9 | 1 |
| Poles | 4 | 0 |
| Podiums | 10 | 8 |
| Points | 171 | 120 |
| Position | 1st | 3rd |
The Spaniard has claimed nine wins from the opening 12 races, while his teammate has just one victory to his name. Bagnaia is finding it difficult to find any feeling with the GP25, with the French Grand Prix being a disaster for the two-time champion.
Crashing out in the Sprint and limping home 16th in the Grand Prix after a first-lap collision with Enea Bastianini, the Italian is now 51 points behind Marquez in the standings. Ducati insiders say Bagnaia is below expectations as the pressure begins to mount on the 28-year-old.
Davide Tardozzi is adamant the GP25 has improved, despite Bagnaia’s struggles. Teammate Marquez has been able to extract the best from the bike, but his season has not been perfect, with two crashes in Austin and Jerez.
Marc Marquez just proved Francesco Bagnaia right about why he is crashing his Ducati
Marquez crashed in Austin after running too high on the wet curb at turn four, handing the win to Bagnaia. At Jerez, he fell onto the gravel while chasing his teammate and Fabio Quartararo for the lead.
Bagnaia inadvertently caused Marquez to crash as he aggressively pushed him for second place. Two mistakes in 2025 have not prevented the latter from leading the championship by a decent margin after six races, but his teammate has a suspicion as to why those crashes happened.
Bagnaia claimed Marquez was ‘too comfortable’ on the GP25 during the Le Mans weekend, stating that the Spaniard believed he could do whatever he wanted on the bike, causing mistakes.
Speaking with the Spanish edition of Motorsport.com, Marquez admitted that he makes mistakes when he is most relaxed – proving his teammate’s feeling correct.
The 32-year-old avoided any mishaps at Le Mans as he came home second behind Johann Zarco in the tricky conditions: “I didn’t make any mistakes, which was my main struggle: to be on the bike; it was very easy to make mistakes and I usually make mistakes when I’m relaxed,” he said.
“When I put in the intensity I need and use my instinct, going to the limit, that’s when I use the brakes well. When I’m more relaxed, that’s when I don’t use the rear brake well, the front brake, the balance of the bike changes and it makes unexpected movements.
“It was one of the toughest mental struggles of my sporting career, especially the last ten laps”.
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Are Ducati beginning to lose faith in Francesco Bagnaia amid Marc Marquez dominance?
With Bagnaia struggling, it would be no surprise if Ducati were beginning to favour the other side of the garage. Rumours suggested that Marquez ran a new chassis at Le Mans before his teammate.
The Italian has to find improvements fast if he is to stay in the championship battle. For the most part, he has been outperformed not only by his teammate, but by his brother Alex Marquez, who is riding year-old machinery.
Even his Gresini teammate Fermin Aldeguer is starting to get the better of Bagnaia, finishing third in the Sprint and main race in France. Jaime Alguersuari says ‘something is not right’ with the Ducati rider; he should not be getting beaten by the rookie.
The Bologna-based outfit are starting to mount pressure on the 28-year-old to perform – it may have got to him at Le Mans with his crashes. Fans think Luigi Dall’Igna has lost faith in Bagnaia after seeing his telling reaction to his Sprint accident, having criticised him on social media before the weekend.
