The dynamics of sport are unfathomable. He thus happens to win two MotoGP World Championships and, despite this, is still not considered the same as riders of the past. Sure champion, for sure; but not yet a legend. Today Francesco Bagnaia managed to climb this last, difficult step. Now he is no longer just the great rider who, let’s not forget, contributed decisively to the development of Ducati, leading it to become the reference and most sought-after motorcycle in the circus; now ‘Pecco’ is to all intents and purposes considered a sacred monster of MotoGP, as Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner have been in the last fifteen years. Until yesterday, despite the track record, comparison with these phenomena seemed risky, even out of place. Now the border has been crossed: Bagnaia has definitively become part of that small circle of riders who, in the collective imagination, mark an era and whose memory will not perish before the inexorable march of time.
It may sound exaggerated, yet today’s victory, in absolute terms, is perhaps worth more than the two World Cups listed. This is clearly deliberate hyperbole, however Bagnaia has definitively entered a different dimension. He attacked the match with the furious attitude of a champion, determined to react after a complicated start to the season. It is not the first time that ‘Pecco’, when he finds himself with his back against the wall and is given up for dead, manages to bring out unknown resources that lead him to create special masterpieces: this gift must be recognized in him. The double overtaking on the first lap against Bezzecchi and Martin was an anthology. Then first the melee with Martin, who fell in an attempt to contain the attacking reigning champion, then the mythological one with Marc Marquez. Destiny seemed already written, because the Iberian had made up for it under the Italian with a decidedly faster pace. But that’s when the spark went off. ‘Pecco’ found himself threatened by one of the strongest riders in history, who joined a satellite team of Ducati and was a serious candidate to join him in 2025. A very delicate moment, therefore, with internal hierarchies still to be written and psychological games with imponderable implications. Bagnaia had to prove at that moment that he was the strongest, at all costs, even risking falling. And he did it, without thinking about the World Championship points, but only about putting the wheel in front of an opponent against whom, it is no mystery, there is bad blood..
After the titles of 2022 and 2023, the bar has been raised further in 2024. Bagnaia has to deal with a now mature Jorge Martin (whose relationship with Ducati could however deteriorate if he is not promoted to the official 2025 team) and , above all, with Marquez competitive again after leaving Honda and embracing the most dominant bike of recent years, albeit in the 2023 version. A three-way battle for the title is therefore looming between the Italian and the two Spaniards, and with in all likelihood today’s spectacular duel will have been just an appetizer of what awaits us. ‘Pecco’, in any case, has shown that he is ready, on the strength of a new one status which, now yes, projects him among the legends of MotoGP.
