Pecco Bagnaia has always denied Marc Marquez missing MotoGP races will make any difference to his current plight or his status within Ducati.
“I think in Motegi everyone was focused on Marc for the title - but I won the races,” he responded when it was put to him at Phillip Island last week that having the full (sorry Michele Pirro) focus of the factory team on him might help him out.
“Honestly I don’t think it’s a matter of focus on me. It’s a matter of how the bike is going. Because the same bike in Motegi was working super-well, and the week after it was not working well. This is the thing that we need to understand.”
That’s true. But it’s also missing the point.
Because whatever the cause of his generally terrible 2025 season, it’s happened in the year Marquez has turned up alongside him.
MotoGP 2025 after 19 rounds
1 Marc Marquez - 545
2 Alex Marquez - 379 (-166)
3 Marco Bezzecchi - 282 (-263)
4 Pecco Bagnaia - 274 (-271)
So whether Marquez not being there actually allows Bagnaia to access anything extra from Ducati or not, it’s even more crucial for him to be making a positive impact, to be showing some signs of cracking the puzzle or performing consistently, in Marquez’s absence.
A factory Ducati battling Somkiat Chantra for last place is even more conspicuous when there isn’t another factory Ducati running first to take your eye off it.
All the titles may be wrapped up and 2025 will still go down as a year of Ducati domination whatever Bagnaia does in the remaining three races. So it’s not like he will actively cost Ducati anything if he doesn’t star in Marquez’s absence. It’s more what it will cost him.
Perhaps Ducati’s World Superbike star Nicolo Bulega will now pop up for a MotoGP debut (and potential 2027 rehearsal) after all in the last double-header and create a different Ducati good-news story - though that could also reflect badly on Bagnaia if Bulega is anywhere near him.
But this isn’t a situation in which Bagnaia can only lose. Even if there will be a caveat over any progress he makes, there’s a chance here to either plant some positive 2026 seeds or minimise some of the 2025 reputational damage - or stop it being worsened. Such is Bagnaia’s plight right now that the headline take on any success he has in the remaining races won’t be ‘but that only happened with Marquez not there’, it’ll be that it happened at all.
Can he influence changes at Ducati in Marquez’s absence that will make 2026 easier for him or will give him a bike that truly suits him? That’s probably a stretch. The post-season Valencia test that technically kicks off the 2026 campaign isn’t as important as what follows when 2026 really begins (and Bagnaia giving his thumbs up to the 2025 Ducati in the November 2024 test made no difference to Ducati binning most of it before the 2025 season actually began).
But that said, it can’t hurt for Bagnaia to be the senior rider on-site for the remaining races. As long as he’s actually performing, or progressing, or showing signs of unravelling something.
And Marquez missing some mileage now probably isn’t going to give Bagnaia any kind of early 2026 edge. How often did Marquez come into Honda seasons short on testing mileage and with fitness worries due to a training injury or shoulder problem recurrence, and then just blitz everyone in the title fight anyway?
But Bagnaia’s wrong to say Marquez’s absence makes no difference to him. There’s a glimmer of a chance to change the narrative for the better here. And an even bigger cost to failing to do so than when Marquez was there to distract some attention with success.
