– Francesco Bagnaia has decided his future: From 2027, the two-time MotoGP world champion wants to start a new era with Aprilia. According to Carlo Pernat, however, there is much more behind the Italian’s move than just the search for a new challenge in the premier class.
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The rider agent believes that Bagnaia primarily wants to prove one thing with the move to Aprilia: that he can still become world champion even without Ducati and against Marc Marquez.
According to his account in an interview with Angelo Daniele on his YouTube channel, Bagnaia was anything but thrilled when Ducati announced the signing of Marc Marquez for the 2025 season and his promotion to the factory team.
Publicly, Bagnaia had always emphasized that he was open to the Spaniard’s arrival and had no problems with a shared team. However, behind the scenes, his reaction is said to have been quite different.
Photo gallery: Before Bagnaia and Marquez: They were Ducati teammates in MotoGP
“I remember we were in Mugello, and Gigi [Dall’Igna] told me it wouldn’t be Jorge Martin, but Marquez,” says Pernat, revealing: “I was there with Bagnaia and Bastianini. Bagnaia, my God, was hellishly angry.”
The decision was one of the biggest topics on the transfer market at the time. Many observers had expected Jorge Martin to succeed as Bagnaia’s teammate after his strong performances at Pramac. Instead, Ducati opted for Marquez, a rider with eight world titles, enormous charisma, and the ability to align an entire project around himself.
Pernat: “Ducati started to revolve around Marquez”
According to Pernat, this was precisely one of the problems for Bagnaia. The Italian had brought Ducati a world championship title again after a long dry spell, and twice in a row. Nevertheless, he may have felt that the team’s attention was increasingly shifting to Marquez.
“I think his decline began when he saw Ducati start to revolve around the Spaniard and no longer around him,” says Pernat. For the agent, Bagnaia had long been the central figure at Ducati, carrying the project sportingly.
However, Pernat is not surprised that a rider does not publicly criticize such a situation. In motorsport, it is common to show professionalism externally. As an example, he refers to Valentino Rossi, who only years later openly spoke about how dissatisfied he was in 2008 with Yamaha’s decision to sign then-rookie Jorge Lorenzo as his teammate.
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Aprilia instead of Yamaha: Bagnaia opts for the sporting attack
Pernat therefore particularly praises Bagnaia’s decision not to choose the supposedly more lucrative path to Yamaha for 2027, but to opt for Aprilia. Yamaha was originally considered a possible new employer for the Italian, after Ducati had Pedro Acosta in mind as a future partner for Marquez.
For Pernat, the choice of Aprilia shows the ambition of the departing Ducati rider. “I want to give Bagnaia credit for this, amidst this chaos full of riders who have made wrong decisions,” explains the experienced manager.
The Italian distinguishes between two categories of riders: “There are those who want to win, and those who leave for money.”
Photo gallery: The career highlights of Francesco Bagnaia
He was particularly impressed that Bagnaia turned down a significantly higher offer from Yamaha. Pernat claims: “They offered him five and a half million. He refused and went to Aprilia. There he perhaps got half, plus bonuses. That deserves respect.” This comes with a clear message.
Bagnaia consciously chose a project with which he can strike back sportingly. “He chose a winning bike to win. To get back at Ducati and Marquez, that’s clear,” says Pernat. Because for him it is certain: “If he had gone to Yamaha, he would have achieved nothing.”
A personal battle against Marquez and Ducati?
Whether Bagnaia actually sees the move as a personal reckoning remains, of course, speculation. What is clear, however, is that the Italian is leaving Ducati after an exceptionally successful period and two rather difficult years. At Aprilia, he is to lead an Italian factory team together with Marco Bezzecchi.
Pernat sees him as a rider who is not yet ready to give up his place at the top without a fight. Should Aprilia take the next step with the new technical regulations from next season, Bagnaia could get the perfect opportunity to directly challenge Ducati and Marquez.
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