Francesco Bagnaia is struggling to keep up with Marc Marquez at Ducati in the 2025 MotoGP season.

The Italian came into the season looking to reclaim his title after losing to Jorge Martin by 10 points in 2024. Bagnaia says the defeat will take ‘years to digest’; he had won 11 out of 20 races, but crashes and poor starts proved costly.

Now, in 2025, the two-time MotoGP champion faces an even bigger challenge, with Marquez on the other side of the Ducati garage. So far, Bagnaia has been struggling to cope with the intense competition from the Spaniard.

The 28-year-old is already 51 points behind Marquez after six rounds, having collected only one win thus far. With nine wins from 12, his teammate looks a shoo-in for the title as he has quickly adapted to the GP25.

Meanwhile, Bagnaia is struggling to see ‘improvements’ from the bike as he has no feeling from the front end. Davide Tardozzi disagrees with Bagnaia; he is adamant the machine has improved.

Ducati are beginning to put pressure on the Italian to perform, with him being regularly outperformed by riders on the GP24 this year. He is running out of time to keep his title hopes alive as Marquez runs away out in front.

Dani Pedrosa hints Francesco Bagnaia is in the same situation he was with Marc Marquez at Honda

The two-time champion is in a difficult situation, as his performances, while scoring regular podiums, have brought about criticism from Ducati. Fans think Luigi Dall’Igna is losing faith in Bagnaia after his disastrous weekend at Le Mans.

He crashed out of the Sprint and finished 16th in the main race after a collision with Enea Bastianini on the first lap. Bagnaia now has a mountain to climb to catch Marquez, with Dani Pedrosa stating that his situation is ‘not easy to digest’.

The MotoGP legend says Bagnaia is ‘suffering’ from Ducati’s decision to sign Marquez, much like how he did with his fellow compatriot on the other side of the Honda garage.

“Pecco finds himself in an awkward situation and thinks: ‘Why do I have to be here with Marc now?’ I think it’s not easy to digest,” Pedrosa told Spanish TV, via quotes from Moto.It.

But when the situation becomes real, and Marc starts doing fast laps, pole positions, victories, etc., you move on to the next area, which is: ‘ How does he do it or why does he do it and I can’t do it?’

“Marc and Pecco have two different styles. Marc is a person who can put a bike with a certain suspension spring or a certain suspension setting, then put a completely different one and still get the same lap time.

“Pecco on the other hand has a style that demands to have the bike exactly as he likes it. And if you change it, maybe he won’t be as fast or he will have more difficulty doing the time. But I think Pecco is suffering more from Ducati’s decision to let Marc enter the garage.”

Marc Marquez dominated Dani Pedrosa at Honda over six years as teammates

Pedrosa knows first-hand how difficult it is to be Marquez’s teammate. The 39-year-old was his first teammate in MotoGP after he moved up from Moto2 in 2013.

Pedrosa was a title contender in the premier class with Honda, but he would soon meet his match with his fellow compatriot. Valentino Rossi was worried by Marquez as he was immediately on the pace of Pedrosa on his debut in Qatar.

	Marc Marquez	Dani Pedrosa
Wins	56	9
Poles	63	7
Podiums	95	41
Best position	1st (6x)	3rd (2013)

Marc Marquez v Dani Pedrosa as Honda teammates

Marquez went on to win his six titles with Honda between 2013 and 2019, claiming 56 wins in that time. Meanwhile, Pedrosa struggled to keep up, winning only nine races and recording a highest finish of third in 2013.

The Spaniard was dominated by Marquez as he slowly regressed in performance. Pedrosa left full-time competition in MotoGP in 2018 and has made sporadic wildcard appearances for KTM in recent years.

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