The difference between Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia so far in the 2025 MotoGP season has been stark, with the latter unable to finish better than third this year while Marquez has won both races.

Why Bagnaia has been unable to challenge his Ducati Lenovo teammate Marquez has largely been blamed by the Italian himself on a poor feeling with this year’s factory Ducati Desmosedici.

Such has been the extent of Bagnaia’s difficulty with this year’s bike, he suggested after finishing fourth in the Argentinian Grand Prix – where he was beaten by both Alex Marquez and Franco Morbidelli on 2024 Desmosedicis, in addition to Marc Marquez on the GP25 – that from the next race at the Circuit of the Americas on 28–30 March he could revert to the GP24.

However, others believe that the cause of Bagnaia’s deficit is simply a difference in ability between two riders.

“Frankie [Carchedi] has been telling me [that Marquez is going to win] for six months,” said TNT Sports analyst Neil Hodgson after the Argentina race, where Bagnaia finished 5.536 seconds behind his teammate.

“Obviously, Frankie was Marc’s crew chief last year, so he saw what a disadvantage the 2023 Ducati was to the 2024; he said it’s between, in his opinion – bearing in mind his opinion will be correct because he’s got the data – 0.4 and 0.6 seconds per lap.

“He said ‘If you put Marc on the same bike as Pecco [Francesco Bagnaia] he will not be able to lay a glove on him’.

“Why’s that? Because Marc’s a better rider.”

Hodgson said that this year is equivalent to the 2014 MotoGP season, when Marquez won 10 races in succession at the start of the season, and 13 of 18 in total that season.

“[This is the Marc of 2014], because in 2014 the Honda was the best bike – Marc was the best rider on the best bike.

“After that, the Honda didn’t improve – everybody else improved, so then all those victories, all those World Championships, all that success, that was Marc being the better rider, not on the best bike.

“Then, obviously, after 2019, the injuries, and then we’ve ended up here in 2025 where, yet again, the best rider – Marc – is on the best bike.”

Fellow TNT Sports MotoGP analyst Michael Laverty added that Marquez is currently operating in his “prime,” and that the Spaniard at his current level is “unreal to watch”.

“It’s prime Marc Marquez,” Laverty said.

“He’s reinvented himself by having to get the arm broken, go through the surgeries, rehabilitating.

“We know that he set out his plan and he re-evaluated his career, going back to the private team, [now] he’s got the factory bike and so it’s nice to see that it’s come full circle again and he’s able to show his skills, which have never been in question.

“A lot of people, haters, downers thought maybe he’s past his best, but he’s shown us he’s still go so much fire in his belly and it’s unreal to watch.”