Marquez: If you expect me and Bagnaia to finish 1-2 every time, you don’t understand MotoGP

Marc Marquez believes it would be naive to expect him and Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia to score a 1-2 in every race in the 2025 MotoGP season.

Marquez’s arrival at the factory Ducati squad has created a kind of ‘dream team’ not seen in the premier class in almost a decade.

With the Italian manufacturer expected to be the class leader again on the back of its crushing display in 2024, the consensus is that beating former champions Marquez and Bagnaia will be nearly impossible this year.

But Marquez disputed the theory that the 2025 season will be a two-horse race, claiming that many riders within and outside Ducati will have a chance of scoring individual race wins.

He cited Gigi Dall’Igna’s decision to utilise the same engine and chassis on all six Desmosedicis as proof that there will be a level-playing field this year.

“We are in MotoGP – everybody is super fast,” he said. “If you expect 1-2 every weekend, you don’t know what MotoGP is.

“So I think it will be a lot of fights between different riders [in] different conditions – rain and damp conditions. The championship is quite long but every race counts.”

He added: “All Ducati riders can fight for the win because we start with a similar base [of bike]. We cannot forget [Pedro] Acosta, I would like to say [Jorge] Martin but he is not here. [Marco] Bezzecchi.

“The consistency is the most important. In a single race many riders can be fast, many riders can win a single race.”

Like Marquez, Bagnaia also identified Acosta and Bezzecchi as Ducati’s key rivals in the 2025 season.

“For a 1-2 every race weekend, I will sign [up] right now!” he quipped when the same question was put to him.

“I think it will be an intense fight. We know how strong Marc is. He is good in races and we have to be prepared for it. Let’s see what will happen.

“I don’t think we will see [a repeat of] Argentina 2016 between [Ducati] team-mates [when Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone clashed].

“I think many other riders in one single event can be fast, or maybe faster than us. We have to be prepared for everything.

“Looking at the lap times in the test, Aprilia with Bezzecchi was strong and competitive. And also the other Ducati riders because both Morbidelli and other riders were fast and competitive.

“It is difficult to say for the championship who will be the main contenders, who will be the more consistent but I think for the first race all the Ducati riders, Aprilia with Bezzecchi and KTM with Acosta can fight for the win.”

With both Marquez and Bagnaia having the same equipment to race with, and the margins between them being so tight in general, the possibility of them playing mind games to gain an edge cannot be ruled out.

Bagnaia doesn’t expect his team-mate to indulge in any psychological battles in the early part of the year, but implied that the fight between the two could get more intense in the title run-in.

“We don’t have any agreement,” he explained. “We are [just] starting the season. It’s not a secret that we both want to win the championship, we are here for that and the ambition in our team is to win the championship – we will have to do the maximum.

“I think many times this season we will fight and I don’t think already here it [he] will start doing some strategies, because the most important thing right now is to improve, to learn from the new bike.

“So we also have to work together to improve and then, in the race fight, the best will win.”

Photos from Thailand GP – Thursday