Francesco Bagnaia

Double Ducati MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia is out to regain his crown in 2025 but faces a new team-mate challenge from Marc Marquez.

Francesco Bagnaia - Route to MotoGP

A star youngster in Minimoto and European MiniGP racing, at 13 Francesco Bagnaia stepped up to pre-GP 125cc racing and finished runner-up with the Monlau Competicion team.

An early member of the VR46 academy, he finished third in the 2012 CEV Moto3 season behind Alex Marquez and Luca Amato. That secured him a full-time move to the Moto3 world championship but endured a tough rookie campaign with San Carlo Team Italia as he failed to score a single point.

A move to the new Sky VR46 squad, through his links to Rossi’s academy, allowed the Italian to demonstrate his talents on KTM machinery with five top-ten results from the opening seven rounds but his year was stalled by a left wrist injury suffered in warm-up at Assen which ruled him out of two races. Bagnaia would only return to the points in two races for the rest of 2014.

For 2015, Bagnaia made the move to Mahindra and another solid start to a season culminated in a maiden Moto3 podium with third place at Le Mans. Sticking with Mahindra for 2016, Bagnaia became a regular front-runner in a season which included two wins at Assen and Sepang, four additional podiums and a maiden pole position. Bagnaia ended the year in fourth place in the standings before moving up to Moto2.

Bagnaia returned to the Sky VR46 team fold in his debut Moto2 campaign and starred as top rookie in 2017 with four rostrums on his way to fifth place in the riders’ championship.

Sticking with VR46 in Moto2 for 2018, Bagnaia was fancied as a title favourite and delivered in dominant fashion with a total of eight race wins and three further rostrums. The Italian sealed the Moto2 title at the penultimate round in Sepang to mark the VR46’s biggest title triumph.

Bagnaia also secured a move up to MotoGP with Pramac Ducati for 2019, racing GP18 machinery.

Francesco Bagnaia in MotoGP

Pramac Ducati (2019 - 2020)

Joining Joan Mir, Miguel Oliveira, Fabio Quartararo and Iker Lecuona on a strong rookie entry list, Bagnaia began the season with a nightmare five DNFs from seven races. 

While future title rival Quartararo was already claiming poles and podiums, Bagnaia settled into solid points finishes during the second half of the season, culminating in a fourth place in Australia, a fraction from the podium. Then came a bizarre braking incident at the end of pit lane at Valencia, which ruled him out of the final race.

Remaining with Pramac, but now on the latest GP20 machinery, equal to team-mate Jack Miller, Bagnaia was on course for a debut podium in the second of the Covid-delayed Jerez season-openers, only to suffer a late engine problem. Things got even worse when he fractured his leg next time at Brno, ruling him out of two further rounds, but he put it all behind him with a dream podium on his comeback at Misano.

Bagnaia looked on course to win the following weekend's second event, only to fall (perhaps on a tear-off), but Ducati had seen enough to hand him the factory team seat vacated by Andrea Dovizioso for 2021 with rival contender Johann Zarco given Bagnaia's seat at Pramac. 

But the end of the season was a disappointment for Bagnaia with just an 11th place finish from the last five rounds, as he struggled to build vital temperature in the front tyre during the cool autumn conditions, causing numerous crashes.

Ducati Lenovo (2021 - Present)

Bagnaia went into his debut 2021 factory Ducati season, alongside Jack Miller, with just one previous MotoGP podium to his name - but went on to lead 34% of the racing laps - more than eventual Yamaha world champion Fabio Quartararo - on his way to title runner-up.

Soon thriving in the factory environment, Bagnaia took three podiums from the opening four rounds putting him just a single point behind Quartararo heading to his home Mugello round.

The Italian race was to be a pivotal moment for Bagnaia's title aspirations. Favourite for a debut victory, but with his head full of emotions after a minute of silence for fallen Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier just before the start, Bagnaia fell from the lead on only the second lap.

Bagnaia would be forced to wait four months to finally become a MotoGP race winner, courtesy of a thrilling victory over a lunging Marc Marquez at Aragon. It kicked off a peerless end-of-season run that saw four wins in six races, a fall while leading at Misano and third place in COTA.

While the Misano crash - the consequence of Ducati's hard front-tyre choice in the cool conditions, catching out team-mate Miller in identical fashion - officially settled the championship, Bagnaia had also been the innocent victim of tyre performance issues at Silverstone (14th).

Nonetheless, the magnitude of the progress made by Bagnaia was remarkable.

A rider that was ranked just 15th and 16th in the world championship during his previous (injury-interrupted) MotoGP seasons, eclipsing all but Quartararo and finishing a massive 71-points clear of experienced Ducati team-mate Jack Miller.

But it was Bagnaia's incessant speed at all tracks from Assen onwards - he qualified on the front row throughout the last ten rounds, the springboard for leading 150 laps compared with 99 for next best Quartararo - that had his rivals worried going into 2022.

However, Bagnaia would need to fight back from a huge 91-point deficit to clinch the 2022 title, Ducati's first since Casey Stoner in 2007 and Italy's first since mentor Valentino Rossi in 2009.

Bagnaia may have been seen as the man to beat going into the '21/'22 winter break, but subsequent engine updates wrongfooted the GP22 riders in the opening rounds of the new season.

That was only part of Bagnaia's woes, the young Italian crashing out due to his own costly mistakes in Qatar, Le Mans and Sachsenring, scoring just a single point in the Mandalika rain and being taken out by Takaaki Nakagami at turn one in Barcelona.

All of which left 'Pecco' a seemingly impossible 91-points adrift of Yamaha's reigning champion Quartararo by the midway stage of the season.

The good news for Bagnaia was that the GP22 was now performing at its full potential and, having concluded his mistakes were triggered by losing concentration when backing off slightly in a race, Bagnaia turned the page with four wins in the next five events.

A last-lap crash at Motegi, while making an optimistic attempt to pass Quartararo, could have proved pivotal - but the championship chase took a final twist when the Frenchman failed to score at the next two rounds.

That put Bagnaia into the lead heading into the penultimate Sepang race, where he soaked up the pressure and put one hand on the title with a narrow victory over future team-mate Enea Bastianini.

A tense ninth at the Valencia finale was more than enough to confirm Bagnaia's crown.

2023 saw Bagnaia become MotoGP’s first repeat champion since Marc Marquez and the first to do it while carrying the #1 plate since Mick Doohan in 1998.

For much of the season, Bagnaia's second premier-class crown had appeared a formality.

However, a scary Catalunya accident, where he highsided from the lead in the opening turns and was run over by an unsighted Brad Binder, coincided with the rise of Pramac Ducati's Jorge Martin.

The title went down to a final round showdown yet again but, in a reversal of 2022, Pecco was being hunted down, this time by a rider on the same bike.

Not for the first time, Bagnaia responded well to the pressure, delivering when it mattered most to stay just out of Martin’s reach. 

The Bagnaia-Martin duel continued from the opening rounds of 2024, the Italian going on to claim a new personal record of 11 grand prix wins from 20 rounds, compared with just three GP victories for Martin.

The world championship was again decided in the final race of the year but, refusing to take part in any 'dirty' go-slow tactics, Bagnaia’s hopes were already effectively scuppered by eight DNFs in “a championship of mistakes."