Theory touted why Alex Marquez could stay ahead of Pecco Bagnaia in MotoGP 2025

Marc Marquez maintained his 100% winning record in 2025 after taking another brace of wins last weekend at the MotoGP Argentina Grand Prix.

The factory Ducati rider set a new lap record in qualifying to take pole, but was pushed hard in both races by his brother Alex Marquez on the Gresini-run GP24.

With just 16 points splitting the Marquez brothers in the championship after two rounds, Marc Marquez branded Alex Marquez as his “main opponent” for the title in 2025.

That’s in large part thanks to the continued struggles for Pecco Bagnaia, who was a distant fourth in the Argentina GP and is now 31 points adrift of Marc Marquez in the standings.

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“I think he’s just got to try and hold his nerve because I don’t see things changing in the near future, to be honest,” Crash MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren says in the latest Crash MotoGP Podcast.

“Until we get to the point when they are testing new parts, I think that’s the light at the end of the tunnel, potentially for Pecco is when they introduce the chassis upgrade, the aero upgrade, maybe that will shake things up and play into his favour.

“But it might play more into Marc’s favour. But potentially as things stand, it’s not just 4-0 as far as Marc versus Pecco for wins, Marc’s been ahead of him in every track session this season.

“So it’s like 14-0 as far as track sessions and qualifying and everything else.

“He’s got to start to break up that dominance, and even if he isn’t beating Marc at COTA, even if it’s just in practice sessions, getting ahead of him in qualifying, just getting him out of his stride somehow because it’s going so perfect at the moment.

“Pecco’s got to break up this run, but that’s going to be difficult at COTA. In Qatar, again I think you’d still put Marc as the overwhelming favourite.”

New parts may not bring Pecco Bagnaia the gains he needs

One problem Bagnaia could face when it comes time to retry the 2025 chassis parked by Ducati prior to the start of the season is that it worked perfectly on the GP24 when he tested it last year.

Ducati elected not to introduce it in the second half of 2024 in order to keep the title fight between Bagnaia and Jorge Martin fair.

But given how comfortable Bagnaia was on it on the GP24, Ducati may well look to let Alex Marquez test it at Jerez next month.

Read more: Scary truth about Marc Marquez revealed at the 2025 Argentina MotoGP

If that happens and Alex Marquez can make another step on it, Bagnaia getting closer to Marc Marquez will become even harder.

“Yeah, I think it’s really hard to know because it’s not like we’re on a version of the Ducati that’s not great,” Crash Senior Journalist Lewis Duncan said.

“Marc Marquez is proving that it’s a good step forward, this spec of bike that they are on.

“I’ve always believed that Pecco is far to sensitive to the bike, he needs it otherwise be be perfect for everything to work out.

“He’s not a rider who can just ride around things. You listen to Marc, for example, and he said ‘we weren’t great from the off in terms of feeling, I really needed to work on that’.

“And there’s clearly still margin there because Marc hasn’t crashed yet this year.

“And that’s a surprise. That means the limits have not been tested, which is frightening because if that is the limit Pecco has right now - 5.5s off his team-mate - that’s a big, big gap to knock down.

“I think Ducati is a bit lost with it because he’s blamed the fuel tank in the sprint races, he’s blamed the tyres as well, and Gigi Dall’Igna said after the sprint that they need to figure it out but categorically say there wasn’t a tyre issue.

“The chasm there is massive and maybe when they get to Jerez and do some testing that things will work out.

“But let’s not forget that the chassis that they put away for now was a chassis that Pecco tried on the GP24 last year and loved it.

“And you have to assume Ducati would probably look to give Alex Marquez that.

“So, if you’re putting that chassis that worked really well on that spec of bike [to Alex Marquez] that’s only going to complicate things further for Pecco because it just puts one more block in front of him and his team-mate.”