Marquez: 2025 MotoGP identify combat may not be between simply me and Bagnaia

Marc Marquez doesn’t assume the 2025 MotoGP season might be a duopoly between him and Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, regardless of the preferred trust.

Ducati is anticipated to dominate MotoGP till the tip of the present regulations cycle at the again of its stellar 2024 season, by which it gained 19 out of the 20 grands prix.

However whilst its victories had been break up between 4 riders this yr, the departures of Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini have left new signing Marquez and two-time champion Bagnaia as the one A-listers in its line-up.

This has ended in hypothesis that the 2 might be engaged in their very own fight for the championship subsequent yr, with a problem not going to materialise from inside of Ducati or in other places at the grid.

On the other hand, six-time MotoGP champion Marquez has refuted the ones ideas, pronouncing there’s a robust likelihood that different riders can even characteristic within the 2025 identify combat.

“It may not simply be a championship between Pecco and me,” he stated. “It is not simply Ducati this is racing, however we need to see the evolution of the opposite manufacturers; there is additionally Jorge Martin with Aprilia, who has gained races, and Pedro Acosta with KTM who has additionally been shut. 

“We can attempt to give 100%, however I’m conscious that it’s going to be very tricky, and that the entirety must be very best to win an international championship.”

Former Honda rider Marquez has signed a multi-year contract with Ducati from 2025 that may see him get get admission to to the most efficient motorbike at the grid for the primary time in over 5 years.

Given his dominant streak in mid-to-late 2010s that earned him a place amongst MotoGP’s largest, many be expecting him to stroll away with the identify subsequent yr.

However the Spaniard, who has made it transparent he gained’t ever be capable of go back to his pre-2020 shape after his career-altering arm damage, stated it wouldn’t be so easy to outperform Bagnaia in the similar workforce in 2025.

“They are saying that with the reputable Ducati I’ll sweep [the title],” he stated. “We are in MotoGP, the most efficient championship, the place the most efficient riders are, the place my team-mate has gained 11 races this yr, which is so much. 

“The tendency is to have a look at how a lot I have gained, however in recreation, you reside within the provide. Yearly younger folks sign up for in.”

In 2025, Marquez will arrive at a workforce constructed round Bagnaia, who helped Ducati clinch its first identify in MotoGP since Casey Stoner’s good fortune in 2007.

This may be a large trade for him from the surroundings he loved at Honda, the place he was once the highest canine and won beneficial remedy in the case of the path the Jap producer took with the advance of the motorbike.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Workforce, Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photograph by way of: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Pictures

Requested about his ideas on becoming a member of Bagnaia, he stated: “It is a state of affairs I have by no means skilled earlier than, arriving at a field the place there’s a popularity, and the person who has the main voice is Pecco. 

“He’s the person who has gained two titles [for Ducati] and he will have to be the person who units the tone in the beginning of the season and in pre-season. We can paintings to get nearer to him, however he’s the reference. 

“Now, I believe that it’s time to stay a low profile. We can attempt to paintings to combat for the identify. However I all the time you have to be lifelike. You need to perceive the philosophy of the reputable Ducati workforce, and arrive on the field of a rider who’s profitable so much. And if the identify will also be stolen from him, it’s going to be stolen.”