"You know him? He's my friend" (a Pecco/Bezz primer)
introduction
Pecco Bagnaia was born on the 14th of January 1997 in Turin, Italy. He raced in Moto3 from 2013 to 2016, then he did two years in Moto2 (won the title in 2018) and joined MotoGP in 2019.
Marco Bezzecchi was born on the 12th of November 1998 in Rimini, Italy. He raced in Moto3 in 2017 and 2018 (did a couple of wildcards the two years prior) and in Moto2 from 2019 to 2021. He joined MotoGP in 2022.
There are several interviews where they say they have known each other for a very long time but I've never been able to tell how long that is (and whether or not they really got to battle each other when they were kids).
the academy
Obviously, they're both members of the VR46 Academy, which Pecco joined at the end of 2013 and Bezz two years later, at the end of 2015.
If you look through videos of this youtube channel or simply the instagram of the Academy, you'll easily find content of the two of them hanging out with everyone else at the ranch or another circuit (most of the time riding and sometimes doing karting as well).
I can't tell you how long they've been partnering for the 100km dei Campioni (that Valentino organizes at the ranch every year) but they were teammates at least in 2024 (left) and 2025 (right).
racing together in MotoGP
2022
As I've mentioned earlier, they've been racing each other in MotoGP since 2022.
2022 was Bezz's rookie season and he did well, earning himself the title of best rookie. He got his first MotoGP podium in Assen (a P2 while Pecco won the race) and his first pole position in Buriram (Pecco was also on the front row).
2023
In 2023, Bezz got his second MotoGP podium in Portugal for the first round of the season (Pecco won) and then he scored his first MotoGP win in Argentina the following race weekend. Pecco crashed and finished P16 after rejoining the race. You can see Pecco congratulating Bezz in the media pen here.
Bezz left Argentina leading the standings, Pecco 9 pts behind him. Bezz got a second win in Le Mans (round 5), three more podiums (Assen, round 8 + Spielberg, round 10 + Misano, round 12) and finally a third win in India (round 13). After that, Bezz lost some steam and he didn't manage to score another podium (on Saturday or Sunday) for the remaining 7 rounds of the season.
(I explained all this to then expand on Pecco and Bezz's behavior while they were fighting for the title but just for history, it's important to note that Bezz broke his collarbone while training in Italy right before the round in Mandalika (round 15) and didn't miss any race or left any time for his collarbone to properly heal not on a bike.)
So what did that all mean for Pecco and Bezz? Well, they were dealing with it pretty well.
After his early crashing issues (round 2, round 3 and round 5), Pecco went on a roll and was pretty consistently always scoring higher than Bezz but technically, up until a little over the midway point of the season, Bezz was considered a solid title contender alongside Pecco and Jorge Martin.
The trashtalking was strong between the two of them, especially from Bezz's part. I have a whole video dedicated to that here.
I'm going to go over the moments that I consider the most important of the season for them.
Assen
The Pecco/Bezz weekend of all time. They went 1-2 in quali* (Bezz pole), 1-2 in the sprint (Bezz win) and 1-2 in the race (Pecco win).
*Luca Marini completed that front row so that was quite a nice day for the Academy.
In the cooldown room, while they were discussing tyre choices, Bezz ended up telling Pecco (in Italian) "Yeah or I would have fucked you today too". Cue a beautiful reaction from Aleix.
After the press conference, while they were hanging out with the journalists still, Bezz said he "finished second for friendship" and while Pecco said they had a bet going on and that Bezz now owed him lunch, Bezz said that Pecco should pay because he was earning more money (video here).
Various gifs from the weekend under.
Misano
For context, exactly one week before, in Barcelona, Pecco was involved in a huge incident which had Brad Binder riding over his leg. The fact that he only came out of this event with bruises is still an absolute mystery to me (he talks about it here in one of my favorite MotoGP documentaries).
Bezz also wasn't at 100% in Misano because he injured his hand after a crash in Barcelona.
Quali, the sprint and the Sunday race all had the same top 3 in the same order : 1) Jorge Martin 2) Marco Bezzecchi 3) Pecco Bagnaia.
The cooldown room has one of the most domestic moments I've ever seen them have with Bezz handing Pecco his water bottle (for Pecco to open it) (video here).
Under, congratulations post sprint (left) and post race (right).
Buddh
MotoGP went racing in India for the first time and it may not have been exactly a good time for Pecco (P2 in the sprint, DNF on Sunday) but it is very important here because of one fact : Pecco going to the VR46 garage after Bezz's win, while Bezz was busy talking with Sky Italia.
I'll include gifs under so you can see now but I vividly recommend you to go check out the post @verdemint made about it (here). It has the video and translations.
Valencia
What happened in Valencia in 2023? Pecco won his 3rd title (the second one in MotoGP), Marc Marquez made Bezz fall during the race and Bezz needed everyone to know when he visited Pecco's box while they were partying for his title.
Pecco also calls Pecco "our future husband" in front of Domizia, so there is that :) As well as him talking to Pecco's grandmother, his sister and various other people. Vividly recommend checking out this post with video & translations.
2024
2024 was not a fun year for Bezz (and Pecco— well, you know). Everyone thought he could be a title contender again but Bezz only managed one podium in Jerez. But oh boy, what a podium it was.
Oh, and Valentino was there with them in parc fermé too :)
2024 aso had Pecco getting married in the summer and Bezz wearing the ugliest fit possible for the event but we don't talk about that.
the thesis
I am not the best scholar so I'll let others expand on that but the thing about them, to me, is that they might not look very similar from the outside (Pecco —keeping too himself, wanting to have the gentleman act, always thinking too much— versus Bezz —the very definition of a golden retriever, pretty much wears his emotions on his sleeve, chill outside of racing—) but they're good friends and just work.
If you want to hear Bezz talk about his friendship with Pecco, he did so in his Mig Babol episode (here).
"With Pecco I have a real friendship. I feel free to be myself without the fear of being judged, knowing that on the other side I have a person who knows who I am and who understands when I'm joking, when I'm being serious, when I'm angry, when I'm happy."
They're always very affectionate with each other, very domestic (see: Pecco handing Bezz his hot dog in the Ducati garage in 2022, Pecco waiting for Bezz to walk together to the bus parade in Silverstone 2024, the two of them greeting each other in the pitlane ahead of testing in Barcelona 2024). Also, this one hug from Mugello testing 2024 has my heart + this one from after COTA 2024.
You will also always find them hanging out together at the back of the bus during the parade, usually with the other Italians.
They also do a lot of their Thursday track walks together, which you will find plenty of photos and videos of in their respective teams' insta + their own instas (they feature in each other's posts a lot).
They also check out the start of Moto3 races together (from the pitlane) quite often.
I've mentioned earlier how important the whole trashtalking thing was, I'm also going to add this video to the list of things you should check out. The gifs under are pretty much the moment where Bezz asks Pecco to explain his times that day.
There is probably a lot more to say but this is already getting insanely long and I'm reaching the limit of my photos allocation so I will stop here, end this post with a couple of my favorite gifs of them and advise you to check my 6372 tag if you want to see more content of them.
