What Francesco Bagnaia privately said was ‘missing’ from his Ducati bike at Argentina Grand Prix

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Francesco Bagnaia suffered another difficult weekend in the 2025 MotoGP season at the Argentina Grand Prix.

The Italian is clearly behind his Ducati teammate Marc Marquez after the first two rounds of the season. Bagnaia offered little competition in Thailand as he finished third behind the Spaniard and his brother Alex Marquez.

At the Argentina Grand Prix, the two-time MotoGP champion narrowly scraped into Q2 with 10th. Bagnaia qualified fourth for the race and finished third in the Sprint, but was almost four seconds behind Marquez.

Crew chief Cristian Gabarrini was ‘nonplussed’ after the Sprint – Mat Oxley had ‘never seen’ the Italian like this before. It is clear the Bagnaai camp does not currently have an answer for Marquez at this stage.

That was proved in the Grand Prix. The Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo has not been a strong track for Bagnaia in the past but he did manage his best finish of fourth.

However, the Italian was over 5.5 seconds behind the winner Marquez and finished behind satellite Ducati riders Alex Marquez and Franco Morbidelli. The result is not good news for his title chances, but there seemed to be a reason for that.

Francesco Bagnaia privately said ‘all aspects of his setup’ was ‘missing’ on his Ducati bike at the Argentina Grand Prix

Bagnaia admitted he was ‘missing’ another level to Marquez in Thailand. In Argentina, he appeared to be struggling with the setup of his Ducati.

The Italian has referred to his Desmosedici this season as the ‘GP24.9’ – the GP25 is using the 2024 engine and aero. Bagnaia claimed he was using the ‘GP24.7’ in Argentina, and journalist Neil Morrison says he privately told the media he was missing ‘all aspects of the setup’.

“I don’t think he was coming into this weekend thinking he was going to win. But then Sunday again, after a pretty good start and actually attacking Alex Marquez at the start, it hinted at something, you know that usual Bagnaia progression through the weekend,” said Morrison via the Paddock Pass Podcast.

“Maybe he was saving his best for the Sunday. But then to watch Franco Morbidelli just breeze by him, and I know Morbidelli was on the soft rear tyre. But there was a point maybe with three or four laps to go you thought maybe Pecco’s coming back into this.

“I think he got within half a second of Morbidelli and then it was just, that was it. Morbidelli held him off kind of at arm’s length and for three Ducatis to finish in front of him, it’s not great, it’s definitely not great.

“And I think he said to one of our colleagues after the race, in Thailand it was: ‘I can’t brake as I did with last year’s bike’. But I think he was saying to Elliott today that all aspects of the setup were missing and they still have some work to do.”

Francesco Bagnaia faces another brutal defeat from Marc Marquez in Austin

It is clear that Bagnaia needs to find another gear if he wants to challenge Marquez at Ducati. Davide Tardozzi is starting to ‘sweat’ more as the Bologna-based manufacturer try to motivate the twp-time champion to start weekends better.

Buriram and Termas are two strong tracks for Marquez and he proved that by taking a clean sweep in both. He is already 31 points ahead of Bagnaia heading into Austin.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Francesco Bagnaia from net worth to race number

The problem for the Italian is that COTA is also a strong track for his teammate. Many people in the paddock will expect another dominant victory from Marquez – and Ducati too.

Tardozzi says Bagnaia will be ‘back’ in Qatar fighting Marquez – by that stage, the latter could be out of reach if he wins in Austin. The former has to knuckle down and at least get closer to Marquez in the next race.