Marco Bezzecchi
We’re approaching the halfway stage in the MotoGP season and Francesco Bagnaia is not one of the riders in the top two of the championship.
For the first time since 2020, before he joined the factory Ducati team, he’s currently on course to finish worse than second place in the standings.
Bagnaia’s struggles are well documented, and he has been led down a confusing path in a bid to fix whatever has changed over the winter.
The winter that separates him from being an 11-time winner and feared two-time champion, to now being expected to finish third or lower at most MotoGP races.
Loris Capirossi says it’s ‘absolutely wrong’ to question Bagnaia and doesn’t believe that he found a way to lose his talents overnight.
It follows a tough patch where Bagnaia has changed his behaviour at Ducati, where he had understandably been critical of his own situation.
Francesco Bagnaia’s father says his old habits are ‘missing’ at Ducati in 2025
After a great fightback at the Dutch Grand Prix, including an overtake on Pedro Acosta to get back on to the podium, Luigi Dall’Igna will ‘never quit believing’ in Bagnaia.
The Ducati boss has been supportive in 2025, but he hasn’t been afraid to be a critic either. He knows what sort of level he can deliver to and expects more from him.
In fact, everyone around the Italian rider is there to ease his woes. His father, Pietro, believes he knows the key ‘missing’ ingredient.
“One seems like he doesn’t do anything special on the bike, but then afterwards, if you look carefully, his bike is never still, when he takes the brake, he just brakes the lever, and he does all these things, but with a sweetness,” he said.
“His posture [is] in the position when he comes out of the fairing to brake. The entrance into the curve, the bike that he’s on now this year is what he’s missing a little bit.”
Francesco Bagnaia ‘really needed’ scrapped MotoGP rule change for 2026
Bagnaia is a rider who loves to use the front of his bike and be aggressive with it. A lack of feeling in the front of the GP25 has contributed to his problems this season.
2026 will mark the final season before Michelin departs as the sport’s official tyre supplier, just before a new set of regulations.
Bagnaia ‘really needed’ one big change for 2026 after testing a new Michelin tyre, which has now been cancelled.
It gave him more feeling in the front and more confidence to be able to push his bike. Instead, he will have to find gains in other areas.
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