Francesco Bagnaia admits what he has ‘struggled to accept’ at Ducati during nightmare 2025 season

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Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia will hope the curtain coming down on the 2025 MotoGP season in Sunday’s Valencia Grand Prix also signals the conclusion of his nightmare.

This term has been a tale of endless woe for the two-time premier class champion, who can finish third at best in the 2025 riders’ standings. Bagnaia goes into the Valencia GP weekend fourth in the rankings with 288 points to his name, trailing Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi on 323.

Bagnaia has never been able to find anywhere near the levels of performance on the Ducati GP25 that teammate Marc Marquez found to dominate the 2025 MotoGP season. Marquez has missed the last three races through injury, yet he still has 257 more points than Bagnaia.

Marquez suffered a season-ending shoulder injury during the Indonesian Grand Prix, only a week after the Spaniard won the 2025 MotoGP title with five rounds to spare in Japan. The 32-year-old will also miss the Valencia GP and next Tuesday’s test after he required surgery.

Francesco Bagnaia finds the ‘reality’ of his results with Ducati in 2025 hard to accept

Bagnaia has failed to capitalise on Marquez’s injury-enforced absence, having failed to finish any of the past four Grands Prix. Only when Bagnaia won the Japanese GP, to do the double after his Sprint victory at Motegi, has the 28-year-old finished any of the last six Grands Prix.

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

Motegi witnessed just Bagnaia’s second win of 2025 after his victory when Marquez crashed leading the Americas GP in March. Having taken seven wins in 2022, seven wins in 2023 and 11 wins in 2024, Bagnaia has found the “reality” of his endless plight in 2025 hard to accept.

Bagnaia said on Thursday during the pre-race press conference for the Valencia GP: “It’s clear I’ve had more bad moments than good this season.

“And after the last four [years], where a bad result was at most a third place, the truth is I’ve struggled to accept the reality of what this season has brought us.

“Throughout the season, I’ve given my all and done the best job possible with the team, trying to understand and adapt to the 2025 bike. But I haven’t been able to. The bike has great potential, as Marc has shown, but it’s been very difficult for me.”

Pecco Bagnaia is enduring his worst MotoGP Grand Prix podium finish streak since 2021

Bagnaia only failed to finish on the Grand Prix podium during 10 of the 20 rounds in 2022, as the Turin native won the riders’ championship for the first time. He was even on the rostrum during 15 of the 19 races as he retained the title in 2023 and 16 from the 20 rounds in 2024.

Yet Bagnaia goes into the 22nd and final round of the 2025 MotoGP season in Valencia with just eight Grand Prix podiums to his name so far this term. Just one of those eight also came during the past 10 rounds when he won in Japan, before enduring four straight retirements.

The last time that Bagnaia only had one Grand Prix podium through 10 rounds was between round seven of the 2020 season with Pramac and round two of the 2021 season with Ducati. His P3 on debut for Ducati in the 2021 Qatar GP was his only rostrum over the 10-round run.