Pecco Bagnaia: Marc Marquez as team-mate? “Super good, or a disaster!”

Ducati’s 2025 factory MotoGP line-up of Francesco Bagnaia and new signing Marc Marquez has been hailed as ‘the best team in the history of Ducati’ by boss Gigi Dall’Igna.

It’s certainly the most successful line-up any team could assemble from the current grid, boasting a combined eleven riders’ world championships, twelve if Bagnaia wins his third MotoGP crown in a row this season.

The only Ducati line-up that comes close is the Valentino Rossi-Nicky Hayden partnership of 2011-2012, which featured ten titles. Eight of those were in the premier-class, matching the current Bagnaia-Marquez tally.

But the Rossi-Hayden team-mate dynamic was very different to Bagnaia-Marquez. The American won his title four years earlier at Honda, while Ducati had been losing ground since Casey Stoner’s 2007 crown.

By contrast, the 2025 Ducati line-up pits the most successful rider on the grid, Marquez, head-to-head with MotoGP’s current king Bagnaia - while discarding Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini and Marco Bezzecchi in the process.

“I think [Ducati] decided to change their strategy, which was to believe in young riders and give them the possibility to arrive to the factory team and took Marc that is the one with [the most] titles,” Bagnaia told MotoGP.com.

“For sure [Marc] will be super competitive because already he’s super fast and next year he will have the top materials. Like more or less right now. But being in red for sure gives you more motivation to be at the top.”

Then came the words that will have pricked the ears of Dall’Igna and other senior Ducati management, even if said with a smile:

“I think [it] could be super good or a disaster! So we will have to see next year when we start. Could be a disaster if in case we start to scream or we start to have some ‘discussions’. 

"But I think we are both very smart and he will adapt perfectly.”

Meanwhile, Bagnaia labelled the departure of current title leader Martin (leaving Pramac for Aprilia), present team-mate Enea Bastianini (joining Tech3 KTM) and VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) as a ‘huge loss’ to Ducati.

“To lose three riders like them is a huge loss because you are giving to other manufacturers three super-fast riders. We will have three contenders more, but without the possibility to see their data,” Bagnaia said.

The Italian starts this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP just three points behind Martin, with Bastianini replacing Marc Marquez for third in the world championship after a double victory at Silverstone.

“The first part of the season wasn't so good. The first 3-4 races,” Bagnaia reflected. “I won in Qatar, but then in Austin and Portimao we struggled a bit because in the test we missed something to try. We didn't finish completely the job, because we were having a lot of work to do. And we finished it in Jerez, Friday.

“Until this moment we were a bit struggling. I wasn't so happy with the new bike and that wasn't easy. But then we improved a lot. We won Jerez. Then in Le Mans I was fighting for the win again and then I won the last races [prior to Silverstone] and my feeling with the bike is improving.

“We understood how to work with this bike. We improved a lot and we will continue like this. We are very close to be perfect on the new bike, but we are missing little details.”

Overall, Bagnaia feels the 2022-spec Desmosedici, with which he overcame a 91-point deficit to beat Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo for his first MotoGP title, was his best bike so far in MotoGP.

“The GP24 is a mix compared to 22 and 23. But I think the 22 was still on top right now. That was for me the best one I ever had in MotoGP,” he said.