A strong teammate brings out something extra. And these are two of the strongest teammates imaginable
Twenty-two riders line up for the forthcoming season of 22 races. Yet for me, only two of them really matter.
With Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia new teammates on the premier team for the premier manufacturer, the rest will be also-rans. Fighting for third.
Is this a blinkered view? Does it fail to acknowledge the strengths of the other 20 best riders and bikes in the world?
Time and circumstances will tell. Bike racing being what it is, blow-ups, accidents and injuries are always possible. But it would be sad if this classic gunfight was to be decided in the medical centre.
Ducati caused some head-scratching when they put Marc into their factory squad – in the process losing the services of 2024 champion Jorge Martin, of luckless but worthwhile Enea Bastianini, and their long-serving satellite team Pramac.
There is a secondary consideration. To do with racing’s oldest principle… that the first person you have to beat is your teammate.
A strong teammate brings out something extra. And these are two of the strongest teammates imaginable. When Marc and Pecco produce something extra, better stand well back from the barriers.
Ducati already had the best bike… a situation unlikely to change in 2025. This was a chance to spice up their season.
The rivalry cuts deeper than a simple fight for the chequered flag.
There’s national pride at stake: Spain versus Italy. In a bike-racing context, this means a great deal.
There’s the obvious personal rivalry, which spiked in Portugal last year when each blamed the other for mutually assured destruction.
It’s Marquez the Merciless, returning superstar on the comeback trail after he and Honda went off up an injury-beset blind alley; versus Pecco the Polite, squeaky-clean standard-bearer of an Italian dynasty.
It is that dynasty that makes an extra difference. It’s led by retired national icon Valentino Rossi. He extended his own legacy with the VR46 Academy based at his Tavullia ranch: a pivotally important finishing school for hand-picked Italian racing talent. Pecco has been a key member from the start, and had already won one Moto2 title (riding for Valentino’s own team) before his pair of MotoGP crowns. They are in constant contact.
You might call Pecco head boy. Better still, teacher’s pet.
Rossi’s own rivalry with Marquez, his major nemesis, is legendary – coming to a head at the notorious kicking attack in Malaysia in 2015. The resulting punishment cost Rossi a final championship. His dislike of the upstart remains acute.
There is a long and spiky history of ill-suited teammates… deadly enemies wearing the same uniform and operating out of the same pit garage.
History buffs will recall the classic Phil Read/Bill Ivy rivalry of 1968. Both rode for dominant Yamaha (Honda had pulled out the year before), and Ivy would never forgive Read for breaking the factory agreement that Read should win the 250 title and Ivy the 125. Phil won both.
Read went on to similar in-team enmity with Giacomo Agostini at MV Agusta. Ago abandoned a career-long commitment to the factory rather than share a garage – he took revenge by beating MV for Yamaha’s first 500 title in 1975, starting the two-stroke era.
It was similar between Barry Sheene and any teammate, likewise for Wayne Gardner, most pungently with Eddie Lawson.
Triple champion Wayne Rainey determinedly unsettled erstwhile Yamaha teammate John Kocinski.
But nobody did it better than Rossi, who demanded a wall down the middle of the Yamaha garage shared with Jorge Lorenzo in 2008. This was ostensibly because they were using different tyre suppliers, Michelin and Bridgestone, but the wall stayed when both rode Bridgestones next year.
Marquez and Bagnaia have been restrained in their comments. “It will be interesting,” said Bagnaia, in a typically muted response.
“Interesting” doesn’t cover even half of it. We’re in for an epic.
