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Former MotoGP World champion Fabio Quartararo recently drew comparisons between championship leader Francesco "Pecco" Bagnaia and reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen. The Yamaha superstar talked about how more often than not, it has become a bit of a certainty to see the Italian at the top of the podium almost every MotoGP weekend, similar to the situation in F1 with Max.
Fans of the two motorsport categories have butted heads over the comparison and drawn parallels between the two champions of the respective series. In this feature let's take a look at both racers side-by-side and see if the Max Verstappen-Pecco Bagnaia comparisons are legitimate.
Max Verstappen-Pecco Bagnaia Comparisons
Why the comparisons are legitimate
The have the best car/bike
At the moment, Ducati, the team that Pecco Bagnaia rides for, rules MotoGP with its factory bike. The bike is in a league of its own and seems to have no weakness. This season, except for a rare misstep where an Aprilia a Honda, or a KTM has done better, the Italian brand has won almost everything.
When we draw comparisons in F1, it is somewhat similar in the sense that Max Verstappen's Red Bull RB19 is leagues ahead of anything else on the grid. The team has not lost a single race all season. The pure pace of the car has been hard to replicate by any other team on the grid.
Their wins almost seem inevitable
This is where the biggest similarity between Pecco Bagnaia and Max Verstappen shines through. Before the start of a weekend, if one sits down to do a preview of the race, invariably the frontrunner to win is going to be Verstappen in F1 and Bagnaia in MotoGP.
Both racers are reigning champions. The form they are in, and with the kind of machinery they have under them, is a hard combination to beat at the moment.
Both are reaping the rewards of years of hard work with the team
Bagnaia has spent his entire career with Ducati. He started with the customer team Pramac and has since then made his way to the factory team. Even at the factory team, it was not an instant success for him as he worked to ultimately find himself in this situation where he was dominating the grid.
Verstappen on the other side did something similar as he toiled hard with Red Bull before getting to a stage where he could challenge Lewis Hamilton for a title in 2021 and then dominate in 2022 and 2023.
Why the comparisons are not legitimate
Max is the undisputed best in F1, but Pecco isn't in MotoGP
Max Verstappen is the unanimous choice for the current best driver in F1. Sure, there are drivers that could challenge him over a season, maybe even beat him over a race weekend, but overall if you had to pick one driver, it's hard to look beyond Max right now.
In MotoGP however, one can't really claim that Pecco Bagnaia is the undisputed best rider. Does he have the best bike on the grid? Yes, he does. But will Fabio Quartaroro or Marc Marquez be able to accomplish a similar job on a Ducati? There's hardly anyone that would argue that this could easily be the case.
Unlike Max Verstappen, who has risen to a level that none of his contemporaries operate at, Bagnaia does not have the same claim right now.
Pecco is mistake-prone, Max isn't
Pecco Bagnaia has crashed out from the lead on multiple occasions this season. He's lost race wins that were served to him on a platter and all he had to do was keep his head in the game.
When was the last time Max Verstappen crashed out from the lead of the race? Or when was the last time Verstappen actually made a mistake while battling for the lead? The level at which the F1 world champion is performing is completely different from the one at which the MotoGP king is doing.
Max is the biggest superstar in his country, but Pecco is nowhere close to that acclaim
Max Verstappen is the biggest racing star in the Netherlands. At just 25 years of age, nobody comes close to him. The 2023 F1 Dutch GP this weekend will see an army of orange out in full force cheering for only one driver.
For Bagnaia, that kind of stardom eludes him even though his success is now undeniable. For Italians, Valentino Rossi even after his retirement, is still the most popular figure who attracts massive crowds all over the globe. Pecco has been unable to attract fans in the same manner, as the fans still don't respond to him the way they do to Rossi.
Conclusion
When we compare Max Verstappen and Pecco Bagnaia, it does appear that the comparisons seemingly fall short. While there is a similarity in the manner in which the two are dominating their respective sports, the differences are important. On one hand, you have Verstappen who has established himself as the best of his generation, something Bagnaia is yet to accomplish.
