Francesco Bagnaia has revealed something ‘new’ about the mistake that Ducati have made with his bike

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Francesco Bagnaia ultimately had another sorry round in the 2025 MotoGP season at the Malaysian Grand Prix, despite the Ducati rider winning the Sprint Race at Sepang.

Miserable results have regularly stuck to the 28-year-old like glue this term, but the past five rounds have proven particularly dreary. Bagnaia has only finished one of the last five Grands Prix, when he won in Japan. He has also only recorded points in two of the last eight Sprints.

Bagnaia won the Motegi Sprint and Japanese Grand Prix in September to enjoy a glimmer of hope that the Italian had finally found a way out of his woe. Ducati also saw Bagnaia win the Sepang Sprint from pole position, yet the two-time champion retired from the Malaysian GP.

A large hole in the centre of Bagnaia’s tyre forced him to retire in Malaysia, with the fourth-placed rider in the 2025 championship pulling over from third place with three laps left. The Turin native had started to lose pace due to the puncture on Lap 12, but continued until L18.

Francesco Bagnaia admits his GP25 got worse after Ducati’s changes in the summer break

Bagnaia’s retirement from the Malaysian GP leaves the 2022 and 2023 champion five points behind Aprilia racer Marco Bezzecchi in their fight for third in the riders’ standings, with two rounds remaining. The Ducati pilot boasted a 57-point advantage before the summer break.

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

And Mat Oxley notes that Bagnaia revealed at Sepang that his Desmosedici GP25 got worse after the summer break this August owing to the changes Ducati made to try to improve his performances. The tweaks especially proved problematic for Bagnaia in qualifying sessions.

“Bagnaia did reveal something new at Sepang,” Oxley told Motor Sport Magazine. “He told us that his GP25 got worse after the summer break, presumably because Ducati had come up with something to make the bike better. But, in fact, they’d gone the wrong way.

“His qualifying performances mostly bombed, further compromising his race performances. The good news is that Bagnaia thinks Ducati are finally making progress with his bikes.”

Pecco Bagnaia admits Ducati are ‘in trouble’ to understand the problems with his bike

On average, Bagnaia qualified P4.6 in the first 12 rounds of the 2025 MotoGP season, before Ducati changed his GP25 for the worse. Bagnaia scored pole for the Czech Grand Prix for his best qualifying result before the summer, while his worst were P11 in Qatar and in Germany.

Through the eight rounds since the summer break, however, Bagnaia has only qualified P9.5 on average. Additionally, while Ducati saw Bagnaia secure pole in Japan and in Malaysia, the Italian only qualified P21 in Barcelona, P16 in Indonesia, P15 in Hungary and P11 in Australia.

So, along with admitting that the changes Ducati made to his GP25 in the summer made the bike worse, Bagnaia concedes that he and the Borgo Panigale crew are “in trouble”. MotoGP heads to Portimao next, where Bagnaia qualified fourth for the 2024 Portuguese Grand Prix.

“I’m in trouble [and] they’re in trouble, too, to understand the situation,” Bagnaia admitted, via quotes by Motor Sport Magazine.