The two presumptive MotoGP 2025 title favourites met for a pre-season 'weigh-in' of sorts at Italy's Madonna del Campiglio on Monday, as new recruit Marc Marquez joined Ducati stalwart Pecco Bagnaia for the team’s traditional ski resort launch.
While there was little novelty in the actual Ducati 2025 bike and while Bagnaia and Marquez had already shared a garage in the Barcelona test last year, there was still plenty to be gleaned from how Ducati and its two 'alpha dogs' spoke about the upcoming campaign.
Respect to rivals...
After Ducati won 19 of 20 grands prix and 17 of 20 sprints last year it is tempting to anticipate another all-Ducati contest for the riders' title - but it is of course unthinkable for its key figures to say so publicly.
"I think with a team less in Ducati it will be more difficult to do like we did last year - lock out all the podiums [nearly] every race," said Bagnaia, referencing Pramac's exit from the camp to instead become Yamaha's satellite team.
"I think KTM riders are super competitive, especially [Pedro] Acosta, but we have to see their [financial] situation, right now it's difficult to know.
"Aprilia finally has the world champion [in Jorge Martin] and also [Marco] Bezzecchi. Bezzecchi wants to improve the results from last year and Jorge wants to remain with #1 absolutely, so Aprilia I think will be competitive.
"And Honda and Yamaha it's difficult to know, but I think Yamaha already last year did a good step in front. The last races they were closer. So I think they will improve.
"And Honda I think will be difficult to continue in the same situation, so I expect also a step in front from them.
“But the main ones are Ducati, Aprilia and KTM at the moment."
Marquez warned it "could be like a dangerous atmosphere" for Ducati to assume it will remain dominant - and that any manufacturer could bring an all-new bike developed in the off-season that would totally change the picture.
...but they're not too worried
Still, in other answers and the overall tone of the presentation the unspoken assumption that Ducati will at the very least be in the mix for wins every single weekend is there in the background.
While Ducati's 2024 dominance was exacerbated by the novelty of the revised rear tyre and convergence in performance is expected in that regard, the manufacturer that has won every constructors' crown since 2020 is clearly expecting to do so again.
Ducati general manager Gigi Dall'Igna reiterated during the launch that the GP25 is only a gradual evolution of the all-conquering GP24 and that any upgrades that won't fully prove themselves in the pre-season won't be on the bike - because the base performance is good enough not to be risking it all for marginal gains.
"I like to take risks. I always have. But you have to be smart," he said. And given the prototype GP25 seemed to convince already at Barcelona, Ducati's confidence in what it already has is surely well-founded again.
Marquez's deference to Ducati 'establishment'
Marquez had gone into last year cautioning against a title challenge in his first year with a Ducati (albeit a year-old one) - and was proven correct in the end. But some - this writer among them - believe that title challenge was prevented by the gap in spec between Marquez's GP23 and the GP24 rather than any shortcoming or rustiness on Marquez's side.
He is up to cutting-edge spec this year, but remains mindful of publicly resetting expectations. In one answer, when talking about his best team-mates, he referenced his long-time Honda stablemate Dani Pedrosa and how every session with him was a "masterclass" - and then quickly went on to liken that to this year's situation as he still feels he has a lot to learn from Bagnaia.
In another answer, he tried quite hard not to say he's targeting the title this year - instead setting the relatively modest (at least in the context of this situation) target of a top-three finish.
Bagnaia knows to expect a fight
The Race took the opportunity, then, to ask Bagnaia whether - despite Marquez's public proclamations of a top-three finish - a title duel between them was inevitable. And this triggered the following exchange.
PB: I think when you are wearing the red jersey, the red leather... he knows that-
MM: You need to fight, you need to challenge. If not, another one will take your bike!
PB: It's difficult to know every season who will be the rival. It's difficult to name one. But I think for the potential of the bike, for what we saw last year, I think Marc will be one of the hardest [to beat] absolutely. I think he will be the main contender."
Bagnaia acknowledged the GP25 would be a definite improvement compared to the bike Marquez had campaigned last year, and acknowledged his new team-mate was already impressing a lot on the GP23.
"I think me and him will be the two fighting. And then there could be someone else. But the main two I think are us."
Sticking to his guns
In a mini-documentary released by Ducati last year about Bagnaia's 2024 title defeat, Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi was captured telling him: "You can't always be the gentleman. You just can't. Because these guys are kicking your ass!”
It was the aftermath of the Thai Grand Prix sprint, and Tardozzi was referencing Martin's Turn 1 lunge that ran both of them out wide. But if Martin is one rider willing to go to the limit and perhaps even beyond in the pursuit of a championship, Marquez is certainly another - and proud of it.
When asked by MotoGP.com about Tardozzi's comments and the fact he now had a famously "ungentlemanly" team-mate, Bagnaia - who refused to back Martin into the pack during the Barcelona decider to maximise his title chances - said: "I'll let him [Marquez] be the 'ungentleman'. I'll be the gentleman, I'll always be like this, and I won't change any time."
Ducati doesn't assume there’ll be strife
Ducati, for its part, does not believe that having the two champions as team-mates - and potentially as sole title contenders - is a recipe for a feud in the style of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo at Yamaha.
"In the end it's much easier to work with champions than with young kids," said Tardozzi on the prospect of managing Marquez-Bagnaia.
"So, I already know Pecco very well Pecco while I'm starting to know Marc in these days, I think that it will be very easy.
"And what supports my opinion is the respect I see between them. They speak a lot, they are working together to try to improve the bike, and then in the end it'll be the racetrack that says who's in front and who's in the back. But that is something that the one who is behind will take as stimulation, to be better for the following race.
"I have no doubt that it will be very easy to work with them."
Marquez's sponsorship change
Marquez has spent most of his career wearing helmets with very prominent Red Bull branding - but that could not continue this year due to rival energy drink brand Monster Energy being a major Ducati sponsor.
Indeed, a big Monster logo is on Marquez's race suit - a sight difficult to imagine just a couple of years ago - but not on the helmet, which instead has major branding for personal sponsor Estrella Galicia (a Spanish beer brand).
"Of course as I said in December, I will not have a new partner on the helmet [to replace Red Bull], and I kept one of the partners that followed me since 2012 - 2011 we started, 2012 was official,” he explained. “Of course they are supporting me a lot."
