Mat Oxley: Márquez and Bagnaia look to steal each other’s strengths as Ducati MotoGP title battle looms

The 77th season of world championship motorcycle racing gets underway at the Buriram racetrack in Thailand over the first weekend of March, with all eyes on one team and two riders.

This year Ducati has its strongest-ever factory MotoGP line-up, with six-times MotoGP king Marc Márquez joining Pecco Bagnaia, who has ridden for the famed Italian manufacturer since 2019, winning the crown in 2022 and 2023.

It’s difficult to imagine anyone beating these two to the 2025 title, because they are the best riders with the best bikes in the best team with the best engineers. Indeed it would be no great surprise if the combination of their talent and Ducati’s technical advantage makes them unbeaten through this year’s 22 grands prix.

The Bologna brand won 19 of last year’s 20 GPs and filled a remarkable 53 of 60 podium places. Therefore it’s unlikely that any of Ducati’s rivals – Aprilia, Honda, KTM and Yamaha – will make serious inroads into the company’s dominance this year.

The biggest question, of course, is who will win the duel between Márquez and Bagnaia? Márquez is undoubtedly the favourite. The 32-year-old Spaniard won six MotoGP crowns with Honda in his first seven seasons in the class, a remarkable achievement because Honda’s RC213V was never the best bike on the grid. Márquez made the difference by skidding the front tyre into corners, something no one had done before, without usually ending up on the ground. He literally invented a new way of riding.

Meanwhile, 28-year-old Italian Bagnaia won his two titles at a time when Ducati enjoyed a significant technical advantage over all its rivals. Last year he was defeated by Spaniard Jorge Martin, who rode a factory Desmosedici for an independent team. Bagnaia lost the title because he crashed too much, so he needs to stop doing that and find an answer to Márquez’s win-by-any-means-necessary aggression.

“Pedro Acosta rides with a swagger reminiscent of a young Márquez”

Both riders know they aren’t perfect and can learn from each other. Bagnaia says he wants to work out why Márquez is so fast in left-handers (he’s just about unbeatable at anticlockwise tracks), while Márquez says he’s focused on unlocking the secret of Bagnaia’s strength in high-speed right-handers.

Who might challenge the pair? Only one other rider will be equipped with Ducati’s latest spec Desmosedici GP25 – Fabio Di Giannantonio, who rides for Valentino Rossi’s VR46 squad, so the 26-year-old Italian has the equipment, but he’s still learning and also recovering from a shoulder injury.

Ducati’s Italian rival Aprilia has an excellent motorcycle which this year will be ridden by reigning MotoGP king Martin, whom Ducati spurned in favour of Márquez for a place in its official 2025 line-up. Martin is hugely talented and very aggressive. If Aprilia can solve the RS-GP’s rear tyres issues which hurt its results last year, Martin may be able to challenge the Ducatis on occasion. And he will be driven by a burning desire to beat the people who think he isn’t good enough for them.

There is one other rider who could mix it at the front this season, with a hefty caveat. Pedro Acosta was last year’s rookie sensation. Five of those seven podium places that weren’t filled by Ducati riders were taken by the 20-year-old Spaniard, who rides with a swagger reminiscent of a young Márquez.

However, Acosta rides for KTM, which is struggling for survival amid financial chaos. Last November Europe’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles went into self-administration, with debts exceeding £1.7bn. Inevitably its motor sport programme is under threat.

KTM management – at least those who remain – insist that racing is central to the company’s existence, so it will put four RC16s on the 2025 MotoGP grid, ridden by Acosta, Enea Bastianini, Brad Binder and Maverick Viñales.

However, this decision will not be made by KTM; it will be made by outside finance people charged with restructuring the company. KTM is currently 49.9% owned by Indian brand Bajaj Auto, which produces around three million scooters and motorcycles each year. It’s hoped that Bajaj, or Chinese brand CFMOTO, will save the company.

The decision will be made just a few days before the season-opening Thai Grand Prix, probably around the time you are reading this. If the restructuring agents shut down KTM’s MotoGP project, it will inevitably damage the championship.

This uncertainty could hardly have come at a more sensitive time for MotoGP. Last year, Formula 1 owner Liberty Media announced it’s buying the championship for £3.6bn. The sale is currently under investigation by the European Commission, which is examining the potential consequences of one company owning the world’s two biggest motor sport championships.

Márquez vs Bagnaia promises to be a fascinating watch, but perhaps MotoGP will follow in F1’s wheels, with the biggest headlines made in boardrooms not on tracks.