Analysis: How Bagnaia Quietly Built His Strongest Start to a Season

After a grueling battle that saw him lose the 2024 championship to Jorge Martin, Francesco Bagnaia is gearing up for what could be the fight of his career in MotoGP. Ducati made the bold decision to pair Bagnaia with eight-time World Champion Marc Marquez at the Factory Team, creating a duo with a combined eight premier class Grand Prix titles at the best team in MotoGP.

The early phase of the season hasn’t been smooth sailing for Bagnaia. During pre-season testing, Pecco struggled to find the same feeling that helped him secure 11 Grand Prix victories the previous year. The development of the ‘25 bike hasn’t been much help either, as Ducati opted to stick with the GP24 engine, among other components. As a result, Bagnaia found himself playing catch-up to Marquez, who stormed into the Ducati garage and quickly asserted his dominance.

This became evident from the get go, as Marc Marquez dominated the Thai Grand Prix, securing pole, the Sprint Race victory, and the Grand Prix win. On the other hand, Bagnaia struggled to match #93’s pace, even behind Ducati satellite rider Alex Marquez, who was riding last year’s GP24 with Gresini Ducati.

The situation worsened for Bagnaia in Argentina, where he finished third in the Sprint Race — again behind Marc and Alex Marquez — and fourth in the Grand Prix. The Italian found himself in a dire situation following the weekend, even considering a return to the 2024 bike. However, he later clarified that he was merely looking for the feeling with the bike, not a complete switch back to the GP24 spec.

Bagnaia finally found a breakthrough in Austin at the Americas Grand Prix. Despite barely hanging onto a top-10 position—and a direct Q2 spot — during Friday practice, in typical Bagnaia fashion, he was able to find improvements throughout the weekend.

After qualified in the second row, Bagnaia managed to make a strong start at the Sprint Race, fighting with Marc Marquez for the first time this season. Despite finishing third once again behind the Marquez brothers, the short race shows that #93 was no longer out of reach.

Come Sunday’s Grand Prix, Bagnaia took another step forward, passing Alex Marquez and becoming Marc's main rival in the race. Eventually, Marquez made a mistake while controlling the race, gifting Pecco the win.

Bagnaia himself acknowledged that his wins were a result of Marc Marquez crashing, and he knows he needs to beat #93 outright. However, there is one positive sign from Pecco’s start to the 2025 season.

Best start of the season?

After three rounds, Bagnaia sits in third position in the MotoGP rider standings with 75 points. 12 points behind Alex Marquez and 11 points behind Marc Marquez, with 19 rounds to play for this season.

Bagnaia is still considered as one of the main contenders for the 2025 MotoGP title, although his credibility was questioned after two disappointing rounds, given the high expectations leading up to the season.

However, there is one interesting detail that shows Bagnaia is actually having his strongest start to the season. As seen in the table below, the Italian has the highest points tally after three rounds compared to his last two seasons.

Compared to 2023 (53) and 2024 (50), Bagnaia has managed to rack up around 50% more points in the first three rounds of 2025 (75). The key factor behind this improvement has been his consistency, as he has finished in the top 4 in all six races held so far this season.

This is undoubtedly a massive improvement for Bagnaia, whose title bid last year faltered due to an abysmal 8 DNFs—5 of them in Saturday Sprint Races—despite winning 11 Grand Prix.

How's the chances for the rest of the season?

To say that the momentum in the title fight has swung in Bagnaia's favor is an understatement, as Marc Marquez is still very much the man to beat this season. Sure enough, he will come back even stronger after his mistake at COTA, a race he should have won comfortably.

But after racking solid points in the first three rounds at a circuit where he used to struggle, Bagnaia will put more pressure on Marc Marquez's camp as the season progresses. All he needs is to get back to the feeling he had with the ’24 bike, something he supposedly experienced during the COTA weekend.

Bagnaia has also learned from his failure last year that securing solid points week in, week out, is crucial in the title fight — something he has tried to emulate this year from the first three rounds.

Marc Marquez is still the favorite for the title this season, but never count Bagnaia out.