Pecco Bagnaia names where Marc Marquez “does something different to the rest”

New Ducati team-mates Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez, also the only multi-time MotoGP champions on the current grid, have named each other’s most impressive riding skills.

Speaking in Ducati’s ‘Pecco & Marc Face to Face’ YouTube interview, Bagnaia, who came up ten points short of Jorge Martin for a third MotoGP crown last season, said:

“[Marc] has two skills that are impressive for me. The [first is] the way he enters a dirty track, when its very slippery, and finds a fantastic feeling.

“We saw that clearly at Aragon last year, that was quite tricky, and he was much faster than anybody else. In qualifying he was eight-tenths clear. So it was an impressive one.

“And also, the way he approaches left-hand corners. He does something different compared to all the rest. I’ve tried but every time I lost a bit the front! So I have to learn this kind of thing.”

Marquez, renowned for his success at anticlockwise tracks such as COTA, Sachsenring, Aragon and Phillip Island, faces the opposite challenge.

“For me, his strong point is the way he does the fast right-hand corners that actually are my weak point. But he is super-fast in that kind of corner,” said the eight-time world champion.

“Also, he has a very strong brake point.

“Those two things are a good combination to be a world champion two times with Ducati, so I will try to learn from him.”

However, Marquez’s Gresini crew chief Frankie Carchedi told Crash.net at the end of last year that the Spaniard had already made major progress in closing the right-hand gap.

“Every rider, no matter who they are, has strengths and weaknesses,” Carchedi said. “The most pleasing thing for me was the improvement in the fast right corners at the end of the year.

"We were fastest [for average pace] in the last sector over the Catalunya race, which is purely fast right-hand corners. And the same in Sector 1 at Sepang, which has the very fast turn 3.

"So to be that good by the end, in an area that I'm sure he'll still say is his weakness... He's in a pretty good position for the future, put it that way!”

Data sharing “a double-edged sword”

Ducati’s policy of open data sharing among its MotoGP riders (shrinking from eight to six in 2025) means areas of gain or loss are soon identified.

It is also thought that Ducati compiles a post-race report for each rider, spelling out their strengths and weaknesses to help them improve.

“Normally I look at all the competitive Ducati riders,” Bagnaia said of the data. “Because many riders do different things in a good way. So it’s important and curious to see the way other riders are doing their lap time.

“For example, at Jerez last year I learned a lot [from Marquez] in corner 7 and 8 during the weekend. And when he arrived close to me [in the race], I just tried to improve on that area.

“Then from the moment he overtook me for the first time, I improved in sector 3. So it was super useful also to see what he was doing there.”

Marquez agreed: “Of course, you are looking at all the top Ducati riders. And last year, especially the first part of the season, I was looking a lot at what Pecco and Martin were doing, the two fastest guys. But especially Pecco, because he was in the factory team, to try to understand the set-up.

“Then the second part of the season was different because I followed more my way, because I started to understand better the bike and what I needed. But it’s a good strategy Ducati has, sharing all the information among all the riders. Like this it’s easier to improve.”

While all Ducati riders can learn something from each other, the biggest beneficiaries are those who need to catch up, since they can quickly spot the secrets of faster riders.

As such, Bagnaia called data sharing, now also commonplace among other manufacturers, a ‘double-edged sword’.

“It’s the reason why last year we were dominating everything, I think,” Bagnaia said of a season in which Ducati was beaten in just one grand prix.

“If you want to improve, to increase your potential faster, you have to share the data. Like also in Moto2, where Kalex did the same. It’s the best and fastest way to improve because you see many things, you can test many things.

“It’s good and bad [for a rider], in some situations. Because sometimes you are doing something different, that is super competitive, but you know that everybody can see it.

“I accepted it from the first time I arrived [at Ducati]. But it’s like a double-sided sword.”