Marco Bezzecchi
It would be easy for panic to set in at Ducati after Francesco Bagnaia failed to reach the podium at the Argentina Grand Prix.
The Italian rider has been off the pace all season and is struggling to match what Marc Marquez has brought to the team so far.
Bagnaia is already 31 points behind his Ducati teammate after just two rounds. He cannot let that gap increase too much more or else he risks leaving too much of a margin to recover.
With the first few races of the MotoGP season favouring Marquez’s style, there should be some light at the end of the tunnel soon for the two-time champion.
Bagnaia will be back fighting Marquez in Qatar according to Davide Tardozzi, but he could be more than 40 points behind by then.
On the other hand, Michael Laverty thinks everyone is wrong about Bagnaia and believes that his resilience is really shining through currently.
READ MORE: Davide Tardozzi is starting to ‘sweat’ more with what Ducati are demanding from Francesco Bagnaia
Francesco Bagnaia’s relaxed Argentina response proves he’s still in the MotoGP title fight
The Race’s Simon Patterson revealed that Bagnaia didn’t seem too downbeat after a second consecutive poor weekend.
“I’m quite lucky, there’s only three journalists here in Argentina this weekend from the kind of permanent po. It was only myself and one other guy with Pecco this afternoon in his media debrief at the end of the race,” he said.
“It was not the usual scrum, it was relaxed. We were able to, at that point it becomes conversation kind of rather than a formal media debrief – what you’d expect from the press conferences that you see on TV.
“You get a sense of people and he’s not terrified. He’s not worried, he’s not lost. The way you would maybe expect him to be given what we’ve seen.”
Bagnaia may revert to last year’s bike as he chases more performance. The more he scrambles, the more that panic may set in.
For now, though, his calm demeanour and approach mean that he is more than in the fight for the title still. He just has to keep hold of his confidence.
Francesco Bagnaia’s Ducati ‘pact’ with Marc Marquez during 2025
The arrival of a six-time champion was always going to challenge Bagnaia’s position within Ducati during the 2025 season.
Coming off the back of a serene period with Enea Bastianini alongside him, having such a rapid teammate may serve as a slight shock.
But there’s an opportunity within the opening. Bagnaia has a ‘pact’ with Marquez to learn his left-hand turn secrets.
It could end up making him a better and faster rider. There’s going to be plenty that he can learn from one of the greats of the sport.
Even if 2025 represents a steep learning curve, the Italian rider should come out of the other side of it as a wiser and quicker rider.
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