How do you keep Bagnaia and Márquez in perfect harmony?

Many experienced paddock and pitlane people I talk with tell me Márquez will indeed take Bagnaia apart this season (but they don’t want to go public with that opinion!). On one hand, I agree. On the other, no one actually knows.

Bagnaia may not have the sublime natural talent his new team-mate enjoys but he’s a worker and a learner.

“To me, Pecco is like a mosaic you see in old churches,” says his crew chief Cristian Gabbarini. “Each year he is able to put one or two more pieces in the mosaic to make it bigger.”

Yes, Bagnaia got beaten last year, but, like Soichiro Honda once said, you learn more from losing than from winning.

“I’ve spent hours analysing and rewatching many times my mistakes and worst races from last year,” said the twice MotoGP champ on Monday, who crashed out of seven races last season. “I was always trying to be as close to the front as possible and I’ve understood that sometimes it’s better to wait a bit. More than once if I’d have waited I wouldn’t have crashed and maybe I’d have got 13 points each time and that would’ve been enough [to win the title]. I will try to improve on that.”

Bagnaia is already planning to use Márquez to make a second improvement this year. Most racers are strongest in right-handers because most racetracks (outside of the USA) run clockwise, but Márquez has always been strongest in left-handers. How does he do this? It’s mostly a front tyre thing – he can put more load into the tyre than his rivals, who usually lose the front if they try to emulate him. Can Bagnaia learn that kind of skill by deep analysis of Márquez’s data and videos? We will find out.

What about Márquez, what did he have to say?

Some people think there’s a good chance that the factory Ducati team-mates will win all 22 GPs in 2025, assuming there’s no Sunday weather weirdness, but Márquez knows only too well that over-confidence is a dangerous thing.

“It can be a dangerous atmosphere, thinking Ducati will win the championship,” he said.

It’s also difficult thinking that the company won’t.

Of course, this year Márquez isn’t only racing for his seventh MotoGP crown, he is also racing to complete what may turn out to be the greatest comeback in racing history.

“After my injuries, the comeback is the most important thing,” he added. “Last year I proved that you should never give up and you should have confidence in yourself, and I will try to keep the same mentality this year.”

And what about the bike, Ducati’s GP25? Last season Ducati made one of its biggest year-on-year improvements with its Desmosedici GP24, leaving riders of the preview year’s GP23 struggling to keep up.

Dall’Igna has suggested that the gap between the GP25 and GP24 will be narrower.

“We have a new swingarm, a new chassis and a completely new fairing,” he said on Monday.

Of course, the launch used 2024 bikes, because the GP25s are still at the factory, being prepared for the first tests at Sepang, Malaysia, from February 5 to 7.