For Marc Marquez, it’s normal to have his teammates under control – he says that Bagnaia lacks confidence and that this loss of time is adding up
Francesco Bagnaia is not the first teammate to be clearly overshadowed by Marc Marquez. When the Spaniard made his MotoGP debut in 2013, Dani Pedrosa was his teammate in the factory team. Pedrosa was able to keep up at the beginning, but an injury at the Sachsenring cost him a race and important World Championship points. In the end, Marquez became world champion as a rookie.
Over the years, the performance gap between Marquez and Pedrosa grew. While Marquez rode to world titles and many victories, Pedrosa only managed a few isolated wins. He ended his career in 2018. It was his only MotoGP year without a victory.
Jorge Lorenzo then became Marquez’s new teammate, but while Marquez dominated in 2019, Lorenzo struggled with the Honda and hung up his helmet. Pol Espargaro was the next teammate who couldn’t hold a candle to Marquez.
In 2023, Joan Mir was not on par with Marquez, and with his move to Gresini-Ducati, he also had his younger brother Alex under control. And this year, Bagnaia has no chance against the eight-time motorcycle world champion.
“Since I started, I’ve always beaten my teammates,” says Marquez about the current situation, which is practically normal for him. Conversely, he has never had this experience. “But I’m sure I will at some point,” he says nonetheless.
“I will have this experience in the future because it’s a natural process. At some point, someone will come along and beat me on the same bike.” So far, that hasn’t happened. At 32, Marquez is the second oldest rider on the grid after Johann Zarco.
“I can remember when I came into MotoGP. Some Sundays I made mistakes because Pedrosa was ahead of me and I was trying to catch up with him. Your teammate is always additional pressure, but in the end it’s also additional motivation.”
Last winter, there was talk of a big team duel between Marquez and Bagnaia. But nothing came of it. Only at Mugello was Bagnaia able to fight Marquez in the first few laps, and most recently at Spielberg – but only for one lap.
In 13 race weekends, Marquez has built up a lead of almost 200 World Championship points over his teammate. Bagnaia is completely at a loss. “I think ‘Pecco’ is smart enough and has enough experience to process all these things,” says Marquez.
“At the end of the day, he’s already a two-time world champion. So I don’t think that’s his main problem. We’re in MotoGP, and with MotoGP bikes, if you lack confidence, you lose 0.03 or 0.04 seconds at every braking point.“
”At the end of the lap, that’s two tenths. He’s in a phase where he needs to regain his confidence. But at the same time, we saw on Friday in Spielberg that he was the fastest. So: ‘Pecco’ is ‘Pecco’ – he’ll bounce back sooner or later.”
