Francesco Bagnaia was ‘relieved’ to hear about one MotoGP regulation that could cure his Ducati woes

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Francesco Bagnaia’s 2025 MotoGP season has almost been written off before reaching the middle of the campaign.

He trails teammate Marc Marquez by 110 points in the standings and continues to struggle with Ducati’s GP25 machine.

From the moment Bagnaia hopped onto the bike at the pre-season test in Sepang, he has looked at sea with the resources handed to him.

He’s had two in-season tests, nine events, and countless debriefs to sort his issues, and a third MotoGP title as far away as it has ever been currently.

Ducati are ‘really focused on’ Bagnaia and want to help him rediscover his peak confidence on track, but there doesn’t appear to be a quick fix.

Marc Marquez believes that Bagnaia ‘lacked’ pace at the Italian Grand Prix. He used his tyres very early on in the race and it ended up costing him a podium.

READ MORE: Francesco Bagnaia shares the Ducati issue he ‘suddenly’ suffered at the Italian Grand Prix that’s ruined his season

Francesco Bagnaia was ‘relieved’ about MotoGP’s homologation regulation that could fix Ducati issues

Neil Hodgson was stunned by Bagnaia’s ‘weird’ decision after his defence of third place against fellow countryman Fabio Di Giannantonio left a lot to be desired.

Judging how he started the race in an intense battle for the lead with teammate Marquez, it felt like a guarantee that he would end up with a trophy.

But he dropped off, and talking to the media after the race, showed signs of relief about the sport’s bike homologation regulations, according to The Race’s Simon Patterson.

“The most amusing part of Pecco’s post-race debrief on Sunday, was the bit where he kind of started questioning also about the homologation rules,” he said.

“And kind of had the sudden realisation that he can actually go back to a GP24 next year because it has been homologated for Franco Morbidelli and the guys on the year-old bike.

“So, it’s still homologated, so you can move between homologations, even though that’s frozen for two years. I genuinely, I think that was the most relieved I’ve seen him in quite some time whenever he realised he can actually ride it again.”

READ MORE: Jorge Lorenzo urges Ducati star Francesco Bagnaia to ‘accept’ one thing or he’ll stay a ‘weak rider’

Why might Francesco Bagnaia prefer to swap Ducati MotoGP bikes?

Bagnaia just cannot match Marquez on the GP25, whether he uses different aero parts or different-sized brakes.

It feels as if he has tried everything that he can, including various setup configurations, which have been aimed at attacking the problem.

Ducati admitted that the problem may stem from the forks of the bike, which is too expensive to resolve mid-season and leaves Bagnaia with a problem.

If he wants to, the homologation rules may allow him to return to his GP24 for 2026, and that may be a clever idea. He won 11 races last year on that machine.

Only then may he rediscover the feeling with the front end of his bike and have more confidence to push at all varieties of circuits.