Marc Marquez’s fate agreed upon as experts debate 2025 champion

Our experts have stated their arguments for which rider will win the 2025 MotoGP championship...

Alex Whitworth: It seems likely that the battle for the 2024 MotoGP title will come down to the two factory Ducati riders, Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia, such was the Italian brand’s dominance in 2024, and the reduction in talent that exists in its satellite teams this year.

While Bagnaia is the most successful rider in the championship over the past four seasons, Marquez is the best rider in the sport’s history.

It was Bagnaia’s propensity to make mistakes that cost him the title last year, but going up against a rider who has more raw talent, more aggression, and perhaps even more racing intelligence than him will be a difficult challenge to overcome.

It’s not impossible that Bagnaia wins the title, but Marquez should beat him.

With better speed than Bagnaia, more experience, and a better ability to manage a championship, the key to Marquez’s success in 2025 will clearly be staying fit, something he managed throughout 2024 for the first time since 2019.

The likelihood is he beats Bagnaia the majority of the times they line-up on the grid together, but Marquez’s speed will count for nothing if he’s sat on the couch.

Lewis Duncan: This year’s world championship battle is one of the more intriguing of the last few years as it’s the first time since 2019 that we see Marc Marquez with a genuine chance at the title.

His rebuilding year at Gresini in 2024 yielded three grands prix victories. And on ageing GP23 machinery, he was consistently in the podium hunt. Going up against Ducati’s best rider ever, at least in terms of statistics, in Francesco Bagnaia won’t be as big of a walkover as people think.

But Bagnaia has shown to be inconsistent in all of the years he has fought for the title, whereas Marquez only had two of his sixth premier class crowns taken to final round showdowns over the years.

As Jorge Martin proved in 2024, consistency in this sprint/grand prix era is more important than out and out speed. If we look at Marquez’s last world title in 2019, he won 12 times and finished second in every other race - registering just a single DNF all year.

In his interview with Crash.net's MotoGP Podcast, Marquez’s 2024 crew chief Frankie Carchedi was brimming with confidence in predicting the eight-time world champion to be the reference rider this season.

If that isn’t enough to convince you, I don’t know what is.

Jordan Moreland: In my opinion, the 2025 championship battle is set to be between two people. 

They both ride for Ducati and they are both in the same team, that would be Pecco Bagnaia & Marc Marquez of course. I think Ducati's advantage is so great that these two will pull away from the rest and battle it out for top honours. 

Bagnaia's 2024 was outstanding, despite the 8 DNFs throughout the season, winning 11 Grands Prix is truly special. He is facing his biggest challenge in 2025 and 2026 with Marc Marquez as his teammate. 

Marquez dispelled any doubts about his talent in 2024 by taking 3 Grand Prix wins and 20 podiums on the year-old GP23. Given the fact he will be on the latest spec Ducati and back into the factory team environment, I am expecting Marquez to raise his level even more and I think it will prove too much for Pecco in the end. 

I hope it is a close fight as the sport needs it and it would be fascinating to see the team dynamic as 2025 progresses. 

So for me, Marquez will be the 2025 MotoGP World Champion and the key to that will be relentless desire to win another title. Wouldn't it be great to see him do it after everything he has been through with injury since 2020.

Peter McLaren: The two Ducati Lenovo riders should be the clear title favourites, but we haven’t seen the full GP25 yet. The prototype version didn’t blow the competition away at the Barcelona test, which provides hope for Ducati’s rivals (and satellite GP24 riders).

However, Ducati usually focuses on the new engine first, especially with a two-year freeze starting, then works on the chassis and aero. So the GP25 could make big steps during the Sepang and Buriram tests.

The key to success for Francesco Bagnaia will be ironing out last year’s mistakes, retaining his race winning speed and not being distracted by the arrival of Marc Marquez.

For Marquez, the question is how quickly he can adapt to the new environment, arriving in another champion’s team for the first time, and his relationship with new crew chief Marco Rigamonti.

Marquez has said “I will try to get closer to [Pecco] because he is the reference” at Ducati and “the one who calls the shots this pre-season and in the first few races”. I’d agree with that for now, meaning Pecco is the favourite ahead of testing and the opening rounds, but it could all change very quickly.

Derry Munikartono: I think it's going to be Marc Marquez.

After reviving his career with Gresini Ducati, winning three Grand Prix despite having one-year old bike bike last year, Marc know that he still got what it takes to be world champion again in MotoGP, all he need is the best bike and the best team – which he already had with promotion to Ducati Lenovo in 2025.

But to achieve that, he needs to beat his team-mate, Francesco Bagnaia, who already nested down in Ducati. Not a simple task, as Marc admitted Pecco would be the ‘main man’ of the team in the earlier phase of the season.

There would be some ‘tense’ moments between those two riders during the season, but I think Marquez would have a slight edge from Bagnaia in the 2025 MotoGP title fights.

Consistency would play a big role, and seeing how shaky Bagnaia’s 2024 season was – 11 Grand Prix but no title because of 8 non-scoring results – I think Marc would win the title in the slightest of margin.