Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia’s turnaround at the Japanese GP was so sudden and so stark that it has raised suspicions in the MotoGP paddock. Dorna reporter Jack Appleyard thinks he’s put the pieces together.
Two weeks before the race at Motegi, Bagnaia didn’t score a single point at Misano. He finished 13th in the Sprint and then crashed rather innocuously out of the Grand Prix.
Bagnaia hailed the test afterwards as a breakthrough, but there have been numerous false dawns in his season. From the moment he rode out onto the track in Japan, though, the character of his bike looked different.
The revitalised two-time MotoGP champion stormed to pole position and was too fast for teammate Marc Marquez to catch him in either of the races.
Bagnaia’s Ducati future was in growing doubt, but if he can maintain that form, a title challenge next year certainly isn’t out of the question – that’s how quickly things have changed.
Francesco Bagnaia ‘ultimatum’ may have forced Luigi Dall’Igna to give him a GP24
Speaking on MotoGP’s ‘Preview’ show in Mandalika, Appleyard said the explanation given by Ducati sporting director Mauro Grassilli. He said Bagnaia’s transformation was purely psychological.
The 28-year-old spent hours in talks with Ducati’s senior management after that ‘rock bottom’ weekend at Misano, which prevented him from taking part in his usual media debrief. Appleyard believes he gave the team an ‘ultimatum’, demanding that he revert to last year’s parts.
In the press conference on Thursday, Bagnaia refused to confirm whether he’d tested Franco Morbidelli’s GP24, but that is the prevailing rumour. Perhaps he was willing to publicly call out Ducati’s obstinacy if they didn’t grant his wish.
“When we spoke to Mauro Grassilli, his theory was this renewed focus, this renewed appetite for success that Pecco had on the Monday of Misano, and I have to say, personally I don’t buy that,” said Appleyard.
“His talent has gone nowhere, his appetite, his desire for victory has gone nowhere. In MotoGP, when things are so tight at the front and are so competitive, just from a click in the head, you can’t go from finishing outside of the top 10 to suddenly dominating the best riders in the world.
“There are some rumours… Sunday night after Misano, maybe rock bottom – unable to score any points in the Sprint, crashing out in the Grand Prix on home soil, a place where he’s dominated before.
“Against normality, he didn’t come and chat to the media. It took him about three hours. He was in long, long meetings with Gigi Dall’Igna, with Davide Tardozzi.
“From putting pieces together, I think he put an ultimatum on the table and said to them, ‘Enough is enough, this cannot go on, all year I’ve been asking [you] to give me the GP24, the bike that I know, the bike that I can perform with, we just have to draw a line under it and move on’.
“It seems as though Franco Morbidelli’s GP24 was wheeled into the Ducati box on Sunday evening with the GP25 engine bolted into it, and that’s where Pecco has refound his confidence from.”
Pedro Acosta shares what he’s heard about Pecco Bagnaia’s sudden revival
Ducati reverting to the GP24 seemed impossible but there’s growing confidence that they’ve taken this route. As Appleyard said, he may be riding a hybrid bike with this year’s engine.
Dall’Igna’s ‘ego’ apparently stopped Bagnaia taking this drastic action earlier. He has maintained the belief that the GP25 concept hardly differs from last year’s all-conquering machine.
KTM rider Pedro Acosta says his hopes of catching Bagnaia for third in the championship have now been dented. The Italian can now start looking at Alex Marquez in second.
“He was super fast in Japan,” he said, via GPOne. “I heard they went back to the 2024 specs. In any case, what Pecco does isn’t in my hands.”
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