Francesco Bagnaia has tried an endless number of solutions throughout the 2025 MotoGP campaign in order to regain his confidence atop a Ducati bike and replicate the dominant results of Marc Marquez.
After challenging for a title in the last three campaigns, the two-time MotoGP champion has had a torrid time getting to grips with Ducati’s factory spec GP25.
The Italian rider has won just one Grand Prix so far this season, a far cry from his 2024 form that saw him win seven Grands Prix by this point in the year.
Bagnaia has taken advice from an unlikely ally during his current woes. The 28-year-old is willing to try anything to deliver results for Ducati and get back into race-winning contention.
READ MORE: Francesco Bagnaia spotted making ‘weird’ gesture after losing five places at San Marino Grand Prix
Casey Stoner’s advice didn’t work for Francesco Bagnaia in the San Marino Grand Prix Sprint race
Casey Stoner is experienced in maximising the results of a difficult bike, having won his first title atop a Ducati he felt was being eaten alive on the straights during 2007.
In Bagnaia’s latest potential solution, he enlisted the help of the two-time MotoGP champion.
Unfortunately for the Italian, he told journalists after the Sprint at Misano that the advice was short-lived and didn’t prove to be a blanket fix for him.
“It’s very difficult; it’s big things that make you go 1.5 seconds slower. Whenever I had a problem, I always tried to get back into racing. Now it’s very difficult,” he remarked, via Motorsport.com.
“I’ve talked to Casey; he’s always helpful, and I was doing what he told me, and it was working, but in the race, it wasn’t. I’m living a nightmare.
“I just want to finish this interview and get back to the shop to figure something out, anything. I won’t change anything on the bike tomorrow. This is chaos. I won’t give up; I’ll keep working.
“This morning I had the pace to fight for the podium, but the moment we started racing, the front end was going where it wanted.”
Bagnaia qualified eighth at Misano on Saturday morning, less than three tenths off Marco Bezzecchi’s pole position benchmark in a highly competitive Q2 session. The issues in the Sprint race were evident, as he fell down the order to take the chequered flag in 13th.
READ MORE: MotoGP Sprint race results as Marco Bezzecchi wins after Marc Marquez crash at Misano
Francesco Bagnaia has found it difficult to adapt to the GP25 in racing conditions
The San Marino Grand Prix weekend was expected to be a turning point for the Ducati rider due to the fact that he had placed consistently at Misano in the past. He has finished on the podium in all of the previous five iterations of the race.
He has been racking his brains to figure out the issues, to no avail, telling journalists, “Within that data, we have to look at things and understand what’s going on. Someone needs to explain it to me.
“I’ve been able to look at the data a bit, but I can’t see anything. I need the engineers to study it thoroughly. It can’t be, this can’t happen.”
“The thing is, it’s not the first time I’ve been ready to fight for the top five and in the first race, nothing works out, like today.”
Among a number of races that the rider is referring to, the most recent example is that of the Austrian Grand Prix in August. Bagnaia qualified third at the Red Bull Ring, a track he had won the previous three Grands Prix at.
Issues unravelled for Bagnaia in the Sprint as he became the victim of a device on the GP25 becoming faulty. He ended up retiring the bike after eight laps.
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