Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia’s 2025 MotoGP campaign has been marred by his difficulties with adapting to the Ducati GP25, but team boss Davide Tardozzi has claimed to have made a key discovery about the Italian rider’s bike that could turn his fortunes around.
Bagnaia has been a contender for a MotoGP title in the previous three seasons of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, proving to be successful in his exploits with consecutive championship feats in the 2022 and 2023 campaigns.
The 2025 season, on the other hand, has been a completely different story.
The Italian rider has failed to replicate the dominance of his Ducati counterpart in Marc Marquez, as he has struggled with adapting to the GP25 after such a positive season with the previous iteration of bike in 2024.
With the news that Alex Marquez will receive a factory bike for the upcoming campaign, Bagnaia has expressed his hope that a fourth factory Ducati will be present on the grid.
The 28-year-old is optimistic about the extra data that engineers will be able to decipher through the use of the Gresini rider.
READ MORE: Marc Marquez’s five biggest MotoGP crashes as Spaniard eyes seventh championship title
Davide Tardozzi claims that Ducati ‘found something’ on Francesco Bagnaia’s bike during the Misano test
Bagnaia had the opportunity of working with Casey Stoner in the Ducati garages over the race weekend in San Marino, as well as during the testing session that occurred at the Misano circuit on the following Monday.
The Italian claimed that Stoner clearly saw an issue with his GP25, which has been echoed in comments by Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi during the pre-qualifying practice session at Motegi.
After topping FP1 on Friday morning, Tardozzi was “very happy” with Bagnaia’s bounce back, adding that having the 28-year-old “on the top of the list” is what he “deserves”.
The follow-up question posed to Tardozzi by TNT Sports was whether Bagnaia’s return to the top has anything to do with the Misano test a couple of weeks ago, to which he replied, “Yes, we found something in Misano.
“I think that now we are to work towards this way that we found there. We had no time during the race weekend [in Misano] to investigate things that claim a lot of time to fix, but it seems that we found a way.”
A report from Sky Sport Italia claims that Ducati have fitted last season’s spec of swingarm and fork to his GP25, after Bagnaia teased that Ducati are trying something “never seen before” in his Thursday afternoon media duties.
The two-time MotoGP title winner was able to clinch a spot in Q2 during the practice at the Japanese Grand Prix, giving him an opportunity to showcase his newfound confidence in the bike in the pole position shootout.
Davide Tardozzi also offered some insight on how Marc Marquez is approaching the Japanese Grand Prix
The other side of the Ducati garage is preparing for the celebrations surrounding a potential title win at the Japanese circuit. Marquez needs to outscore Alex Marquez by three points at Motegi to secure his seventh MotoGP title.
Whilst in conversation with TNT Sports on the pit wall, Tardozzi was also asked how the championship leader was approaching the race weekend in Japan, ahead of his first proper opportunity of clinching the title.
The Italian team manager replied, “Marc is very calm and focused on his race. He knows the advantage that he has that honestly, if it isn’t here then it will be at another race.
“But he deserves the championship, and we’ll see that whatever will be, will be.”
If Marquez is successful this weekend, it will mark the fourth time in his MotoGP career that he has clinched a title at the Japanese circuit.
Marquez has mixed feelings about securing the title at Honda’s home race, given his history with the team that helped him on his way to the six championships he currently holds in the premier class.
The sentiment is on the opposite end of the spectrum to what the CEO of Ducati thinks, who would love nothing more than to win the title on the home turf of Ducati’s MotoGP rivals.
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