Francesco Bagnaia Finishes 2024 With Class

In sports, generally, a winner celebrates, while the loser has excuses. Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia is an exception because stats and speed are on his side. He did all he could do, fought hard but fair in the chase of his third MotoGP title in a row. But in the end, he admitted defeat and left the stage to Jorge Martín, the new 2024 MotoGP Champion. He was beaten on the Ducati factory bike, having scored more wins, but in this sport performance and consistency have to go hand in hand.

And as the world celebrated Martín’s well deserved victory—the first rider in the modern MotoGP history to win the title on a satellite team (the last one was Valentino Rossi with Honda Nastro Azzurro but in the 500cc class)—we went behind the scenes with Pecco Bagnaia.

“I knew it would be impossible, but I tried. This year, the two of us are on another level compared to the others: if things go slowly, Jorge will finish second or at most third,” Pecco Bagnaia said before the final round. “I’ll try to win again, stay ahead, and leave them all behind. But I can’t do more than this.”

Bagnaia knew that the mission was almost impossible, but he did his best. In Barcelona’s final round he took it all: pole, sprint win, and GP win. But it was not enough to close the gap with Martín At the checkered flag he congratulated the new MotoGP world champion and then made himself “invisible” to leave the attention to the victorious Spaniard.

Bagnaia shone for his fair play, something you don’t expect in a racer, who, by definition must be ruthless and with a big ego. Something that is definitely necessary to run at 300 kph, risking life every single second.

“Today, the spotlight is all on Jorge. He deserves it. I’ve had fun, learned a lot, and together we’ve raised the level.”

At the end of the season, Bagnaia scored 498 points, 31 more than last year, but it wasn’t enough: “Looking back, I couldn’t have done more. It’s fine, we’ll try again next year.”

Pecco Bagnaia had an extraordinary season: 11 GP wins and seven sprint races, totaling 18 victories. Not even Rossi has managed to do better. But “The Doctor” won nine titles.

No rider has ever won so much in a single MotoGP season. Not even Rossi, who won 11 races three times alongside his titles, nor Marc Márquez, who hit 13 victories in 2014. The paradox for Bagnaia lies in the stats.

In his best season ever, Pecco won 18 races: seven sprints and 11 GPs. Only five riders have won that many GPs in a season: Giacomo Agostini, Mick Doohan, Valentino Rossi, and Marc Márquez. However, his eight DNFs counted against him, of which only three were entirely his fault.

“We know we were the strongest. I believe there’s nothing dishonorable in losing if you do it the right way: fighting until the end, never losing hope, enthusiasm, or the determination. It’s all important; it serves as a lesson. I know we lost because of our mistakes and zeros, and that made the difference,” he confessed.

“I pay for the eight DNFs in the races. Four were caused by others, one was due to a technical issue with the bike. But three were my fault. The most absurd one was Silverstone. I was leading, everything was going well, and for some reason, I pushed even harder and crashed. The most stupid one? Barcelona, last May.”

Bagnaia swears that he has learned his lesson. It won’t happen again, and in Barcelona, he proved once again that he was the strongest. “I’ve learned the lesson. In the future, I’ll try to stay away from certain riders—it’s too dangerous. At the start of the season, I had a bad feeling while riding; I didn’t complain enough. I waited too long to ask for the removal of the new swingarm that suited other riders, but not me. I should have pushed for it more and asked to remove it earlier.”

In parc fermé, Pecco said little, stepping aside like a true gentleman to let Martín have the spotlight.

“I always put myself in the other’s shoes and know how important it is when someone achieves the best result. It’s wrong to take the spotlight away from them. Winning in Barcelona was important, but Jorge is the one who really made the difference, whereas we had more bad luck or more zeros. So I didn’t see the reason to be in the middle of it. I think it’s fairer this way. He deserves it, he’s a great rider.”

Champions leave the past behind and start fresh. This is what Bagnaia will do as he jumps on the GP25, but on Sunday in Barcelona it was still time to wrap up the season.

“Let’s say the thing that bothered me most this year, and thinking about it, I regret, is that I’ve always been very careful and always needed the feeling with the bike. In the first part of the season, I somewhat underestimated this and took more races to remove something that others were using and that wasn’t giving me the same advantage, like the forks and the swingarm. That really slowed us down. Jorge was more consistent and settled more. But it is also true that we crashed three times not for my fault and a DNF for a technical issue. My biggest regret is not having pushed more to fix things with the bike earlier in the season. And then the biggest mistake is hard to say: at Silverstone I was pushed too much, I overdid it. The rest were mistakes where I didn’t do anything wrong per se.”

Looking back, every win is special, but if he has to pick one, Bagnaia doesn’t hesitate: “The victory at Mugello and then the four consecutive wins. Winning at Barcelona for the final round was the easiest one as no one was really pushing.”

Two moments will remain crystalized in Pecco Bagnaia’s mind as, in the future, maybe talking with his nephews, he will rewind his stellar 2024 season. A total of 18 victories were not enough to secure the third title in MotoGP. As the world outside was celebrating Martín’s success, Pecco—now a king without a crown—in the sacred silence of the factory Ducati garage, ripped off the No. 1 from the fairing of his red Desmosedici.

“I wish this moment would never come. Losing hurts, but you have to know how to accept it in order to grow and improve. I am proud of my people, they will always be the No. 1 for me. Thanks, team.”

Bagnaia gave a true lesson in sportsmanship on Sunday in Barcelona, that was crowned by a second frame, 24 hours later. As the 2025 season kicked off at Montmeló Circuit with the first test session, Pecco went straight to the Aprilia garage. Was he crazy? Not at all, he snuck in to see what number Jorge Martín would stick on his factory RS-GP: the No. 1 or the 89?

Once again, Pecco gave a lesson, that before being a racer, he is an amazing person. And another challenge has just begun, as he will share the garage with eight-time world champion Marc Márquez.