Davide Tardozzi shares the only ‘problem’ Ducati see after Francesco Bagnaia’s ‘outburst’

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Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi has confirmed that Francesco Bagnaia will race for the Borgo Panigale brand in 2026, no matter his struggles during the 2025 season.

This year has proven to be a campaign that Bagnaia will desperately want to forget, with the 28-year-old already 197 points adrift of his teammate Marc Marquez in the riders’ standings after 13 rounds. Gresini’s Alex Marquez also heads Bagnaia by 55 points with a year-old bike.

Bagnaia has endlessly struggled to adapt to the Ducati GP25 thus far this term, despite Marc Marquez showing what the Desmosedici is capable of. The Spaniard is quickly closing in on a seventh riders’ title, having already taken nine Grand Prix and 12 Sprint Race wins in 2025.

Glory has rarely materialised for the Italian so far this season, with Bagnaia only winning the Americas Grand Prix after Marquez crashed from the lead. The two-time champion has even made only seven podiums and registered a woeful P8 finish in the Austrian GP last weekend.

Davide Tardozzi’s only ‘problem’ is Ducati helping Francesco Bagnaia find his form again

Marquez did the double at the 2025 Austrian GP, as the 32-year-old got his first-ever Grand Prix win at the Red Bull Ring. He even finished 12.486 seconds in front of Bagnaia in P8, who fumed “I hope Ducati can explain this to me” after the race as “I’m running out of patience.”

Bagnaia “sorted it out” with Ducati after the Austrian GP in their usual post-race debrief this Monday. And team manager Tardozzi has now shared that the only “problem” he sees after Bagnaia’s “outburst” is how Ducati can help the Turin native rediscover his competitiveness.

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

Tardozzi told Sky Italia at the Hungarian GP, via Moto.it: “We understood the outburst of the rider, of the boy who sees his dream slipping away. Pecco feels obliged to us, to him and his ability to fight for the podium every time. It can happen in the heat of the moment.

“For us, it was absolutely not a problem. As he said, we talk very often. The unity between Pecco and the team is very solid. If we have to say something, we say it to each other face-to-face. We want to maintain this unity, and we are confident that he is a great rider.

“I confirm that there are no problems. The relationship is continuing, Pecco and I are on the same wavelength. I don’t see any problem, other than trying to find that feeling that was missing in the first part of the season and didn’t allow him to perform.”

Davide Tardozzi ‘confirms’ Francesco Bagnaia will race for Ducati in the 2026 season

Questions had been growing about Bagnaia’s future with Ducati, all the while his troubles in the 2025 MotoGP season persist in parallel to Marquez dominating. Even Casey Stoner fears Ducati will look to replace Bagnaia, having experienced their boot himself after he struggled.

But Tardozzi has now put those questions to bed, and Bagnaia will also hope their clear-the-air talks after the Austrian GP yielded enough answers to move forward positively. They will both know that Bagnaia will only lose even more confidence if his woe continues to persist.

Marquez sees that Bagnaia has lost confidence, as the Spaniard did before he left Honda to join Gresini in 2024, so he is losing time every lap. Bagnaia has not beaten his teammate in any Grand Prix since his P3 at Jerez in April, when Marquez recovered to P12 after crashing.