Bagnaia was thinking about 2024 MotoGP mistakes during honeymoon

Francesco Bagnaia has admitted that he pondered over the mistakes he made during an unsuccessful MotoGP title bid in 2024 while on his honeymoon during the off-season.

Having gotten married to his girlfriend Domizia Castagnini in July, the factory Ducati rider belatedly went on his honeymoon after the conclusion of the 2024 MotoGP season.

The winter break also saw the two-time MotoGP champion making a trip to Los Angeles to support the local Lakers team in the NBA.

However, while he was winding down after a punishing 20-round campaign, the Italian admitted that events of his title battle with Pramac’s Jorge Martin were still on his mind.

“I know it myself [that I need to eliminate my mistakes],” he told Sky Sport. “The good thing is that I self-analyse a lot. Even though I was on my honeymoon, I thought a lot about certain moments of the season [laughs].”

However, he still felt that the winter break was a success, as he managed to spend some time away from the race track.

“My winter was a fairytale,” he said. “The honeymoon was much more beautiful than I could have ever expected. It was definitely a winter in which we relaxed to get back ready.”

Bagnaia and new team-mate Marc Marquez will unveil the new Ducati GP25 in Italy on 20 January, two weeks before the first test of the year at Sepang on 5-7 February.

Ducati is again the favourite for the title, having dominated MotoGP in recent years, but Bagnaia is wary of the threat from rival manufacturers

“In the meantime, we’re starting to ride our motorbikes again, which is what we like the most,” he said.

“But it will certainly be a fun season for everyone, very tough for everyone, because there are always more races. 

“Then the competition is getting higher and higher. I believe that Aprilia, with two riders like that [Martin and Marco Bezzecchi] can be fast.

“We’ll have to see a bit about the difficult winter KTM went through, but the riders at their disposal are very strong. 

“But Yamaha and Honda will probably also grow, especially Yamaha. So we’ll see, but we have to think about what we did wrong last year and try to do better.”

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing, Gigi Dall’Igna, Ducati Corse General Manager, Claudio Domenicali, Ducati Corse CEO, Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing, Alessandro Lupino

Photo by: Ducati Corse

With 11 wins in 20 grands prix in 2024, Bagnaia earned a spot in the list of riders with most victories during the year.

While replicating that feat in 2025 would be hard, particularly with six-time champion Marquez having the same machinery as him, the 27-year-old thinks beating his own personal record won’t be impossible

“Are they not replicable? You always have to try to do better. If there are 20 races, it means you can win just as many, so you have to try to always do a little better,” he said.