Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia’s 2025 MotoGP season has been a mixed bag, but he continues to work hard to find a solution for his woes.
The Italian rider is a comfortable third in the riders’ standings, but hasn’t really been able to match Marc or Alex Marquez consistently at the top.
For Bagnaia, much of the year has been frustrating. He seems to have tried everything to find more pace, but there hasn’t been a working solution so far.
And it can’t be very encouraging for Ducati either, whose two-time champion superstar has gone from winning 11 races in 2024 to just the one in 2025.
Bagnaia may have outsmarted a ‘battered’ Marquez by going a different way with setup during the Dutch Grand Prix.
Neil Hodgson expects Ducati held ‘serious conversations’ with Bagnaia after failing to reach the podium at his home race a few weeks ago. He was beaten by three other Ducati riders on the day.
READ MORE: Francesco Bagnaia says Marc Marquez now does one thing on track that makes him ‘suffer a lot’
Francesco Bagnaia confirms Ducati technical problem faced for ‘years’ at the Dutch Grand Prix
Bagnaia was left feeling guilty after acknowledging that his team have been ‘giving their all’ in 2025, without having much to show for it on his side of the garage.
It’s the most he has struggled for nearly four years since joining Ducati, and that was understandable, as he had a lot to get used to.
Bagnaia tried to ‘reset’ behind the scenes at Ducati, and it looked as though it might have worked after qualifying second at Assen. Sadly, the sprint saw him go backwards again as he limped home in fifth place.
Speaking after the race, the 28-year-old told SPEEDWEEK that he has been working on one Ducati problem for ‘years’ now.
“I’ve been working on this for years. It has to do with the technical basis of the sprint setup, it’s not a mental thing.
“It has to do with the fact that I can’t corner as well as I should in the early laps. We’re continuing to work on improving that.”
How Marc Marquez has supported Francesco Bagnaia behind the scenes
Although teammates are usually rivals of each other, given that they are the only ones with a direct comparison to anyone, the Ducati riders seem to get along well.
That’s particularly rare given that they are two multiple MotoGP champions and are vying for the same outcome.
Marquez is ‘supporting’ Bagnaia behind the scenes and has been trying to help him figure out what is wrong with his approach to the GP25 bike.
At this stage, the championship feels like a foregone conclusion. Marc has shown way too much speed to be caught.
However, Bagnaia did manage to recover from a 91-point deficit in 2022 against Fabio Quartararo. That was on a very different bike, though.
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