Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia has hit the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix at the TT Circuit Assen with the weight of a 110-point deficit to his Ducati teammate Marc Marquez on his shoulders.
The 28-year-old Italian welcomed the 32-year-old Spaniard into Borgo Panigale ahead of the 2025 MotoGP season after Ducati hired Marquez. Yet Bagnaia has since had to sit back and watch the six-time champion’s five Grand Prix wins, eight Sprint wins and six pole positions.
Bagnaia remains on just one single victory after the first nine rounds of the season, which he also only took after Marquez crashed. Even Gresini star Alex Marquez has bettered the Turin native, for whom the Bologna Bullets were his undisputed team until Marc arrived this term.
Ducati have only seen the two-time title-winner take to the top step of a podium as Bagnaia won the Americas Grand Prix after Marquez crashed in the lead. The VR46 academy product has also now failed to finish on the podium during five of the first nine Grands Prix this year.
Neil Hodgson expects Ducati held ‘serious conversations’ with Francesco Bagnaia after the Italian Grand Prix
The latest failure on Bagnaia’s CV in 2025 came last weekend at the Italian Grand Prix, which had been the Ducati rider’s race in recent years. Bagnaia had won the Grand Prix at Mugello in 2022, 2023 and 2024, but VR46 racer Fabio Di Giannantonio even beat him to P3 in 2025.
Di Giannantonio taunted Bagnaia at Mugello, as well, after overtaking his compatriot on the penultimate lap before falling just shy of catching Alex Marquez for P2. And Neil Hodgson is convinced that Ducati would have held ‘serious conversations’ with Bagnaia about Mugello.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Francesco Bagnaia from net worth to race number
Hodgson said on TNT Sports 2 (27/06, 10:51): “Pecco is in a hole. The salt in the wound was getting passed by Fabio Di Giannantonio with a few laps to go. Because Pecco’s argument could be, ‘Look, the ‘25 Ducati is definitely not as good as the ‘24. I can’t ride it. There’s only one person who can’, obviously that’s Marc Marquez.
“But Diggi is the only other rider on a ‘25 Ducati. So, for Fabio to catch and pass him, I know it’s Fabio’s home race, as well, because he’s Italian, but at Pecco’s track, it was almost like that’s unacceptable.
“If you are the factory Ducati team, you’re like, ‘Pecco, you know, your Francesco Bagnaia, you’re the two-time MotoGP world champion. You’re better than this’.
“I’m sure there were some serious conversations, some strong words from Davide Tardozzi. We know what he’s like, and he’ll speak his mind. He won’t pull any punches, will he?”
Francesco Bagnaia must respond to his Mugello misery in the Dutch Grand Prix at Assen
The Italian GP proved to be an entirely miserable affair for Bagnaia, as he struggled to fight Marc and Alex Marquez around a circuit in Mugello he owned in recent years. Bagnaia said he ‘can’t’ attack corners how he wants ‘anymore’, too, after watching Marc win the Sprint.
Now, the MotoGP paddock has quickly moved on to Assen and Bagnaia must respond to his Mugello misery in the Dutch GP. The TT Circuit Assen is another track the Ducati rider loves, having won the Dutch GP in 2022, 2023 and 2024, as well as the Sprint Race there last year.
If Bagnaia cannot respond to Marquez’s dominance and eat into his now 110-point deficit in the riders’ standings at Assen, then the ‘serious conversations’ that Hodgson expects Ducati and team manager Tardozzi held after the Italian GP would only become increasingly bleak.
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