Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez’s “when you wear red” verdict on a title scrap

In the past, Marc Marquez would ‘welcome’ new MotoGP team-mates to Repsol Honda with a reminder that winning was expected.

After Jorge Lorenzo’s arrival to form a much-hyped ‘dream team’ for 2019, Marquez spelt out: “A dream team is when you win the triple crown.”

As recently as Marquez’s final Honda launch, alongside another new team-mate and former champion in Joan Mir, Marquez had said:

“Both of us need to be winning races - if you wear these colours you have to, it’s a must.”

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The tables have now turned, with Marquez the newcomer in a Ducati Lenovo ‘dream team’ alongside fellow multi-champion Francesco Bagnaia for 2025.

And when Bagnaia was quizzed on the likelihood of a title battle with Marquez during Monday’s team launch, the Spaniard could finish the sentence for him.

Bagnaia began: “When you're wearing the red leathers, you have to - he [Marquez] knows that this year…”

Marquez, with a wry smile, jumped in: “You need to fight for the championship! If not, another [rider] will take your bike!”

Expanding on his answer, double champion Bagnaia - who narrowly lost out on a third crown to Jorge Martin last season - agreed that Marquez should be his ‘main contender’ but didn’t rule out a surprise.

“It’s difficult to know every season who the rival will be.

“But I think for the potential of the bike and from what we saw last year, Marc will be one of the hardest absolutely, he will be the main contender.

“Because he has one more year of experience with our bike. The new bike will absolutely suit him better because it's an improvement compared with what he was riding last year.

“And he was already doing an amazing job [last year], many podiums, won three races.

“So I think [he] will be the main contender and we have to see during the season who the others are.

“There could be someone else. But the main two I think are us.”

Marquez: “Main target is title top three”

Whilst acknowledging the need to fight for the title in factory colours, Marquez insists he’d be satisfied to match last year’s achievement of a place in the world championship top three.

“Of course, my team-mate finished second or first the last four years, so he's super strong and the normal thing is that he will be in front. Especially in the first races,” Marquez said.

“He won eleven races. He made some mistakes, yeah, but if you don't take a risk, you don't win eleven races. So in the end, it's always a compromise.

“But as I said, I will try to learn from him, try to understand how I can find the best level with my riding style inside the Ducati Lenovo team, and from that point, let's see.

“Trying to be in that top three at the end of the championship will be the main target. Of course, we will try to keep the focus on that title, but the main target is top three.”

Marquez, who won six premier-class titles from 2013-2019, added:

“The target of the team is to try to win. If Pecco is not [able] to win, I'll try to win. If I'm not [able] to win, he will try to win.”