Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia says the barrage of internal questions he faced during his 2025 Ducati slump was unhelpful. Neither Bagnaia nor his team could explain his discomfort on the GP25.
The Italian had either finished first or second in the world championship every year since joining the Ducati factory squad in 2021, but last year, he slipped to fifth.
While he won two Grands Prix and two Sprints, Bagnaia also failed to reach Q2 on four occasions and retired from six of the last seven races.
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Francesco Bagnaia faced ‘1,000 questions’ from Ducati staff last year
Speaking on ‘The BSMT‘ podcast (recorded in 2025), Bagnaia explained that the healthy dynamic he had with crew chief Cristian Gabarrini and engineer Tommaso Pagano was disrupted.
Ducati’s management were so concerned by his drop-off that they used to bombard him with questions when he returned to the garage. This was counterproductive, creating too much ‘noise’.
Bagnaia ‘learned on his own’ last year – not even Luigi Dall’Igna was able to offer him the advice he needed.
Who would win as teammates, Francesco Bagnaia or Pedro Acosta?
“In situations like this, everyone wants to have their say, making more noise than you need to,” the two-time MotoGP champion explained. “When we were doing well, I went back to the garage, spoke with Cristian and Tommy, and the engineers listened to me.
“This year, however, I arrived at the garage, and everyone was asking questions, making more noise than we needed. This year, 1,000 questions arrived in the box, and we no longer understood anything.”
‘My mechanics deserve a statue,’ Pecco Bagnaia says
Bagnaia has now recognised his ‘biggest’ mistake – trying to recreate the GP24. He had won 11 races and scored 16 podiums during his title battle with Jorge Martin.
While he is extremely grateful to his mechanics for enabling his experiments, it was ultimately a ‘waste of time’ given that the DNA of the bike had fundamentally changed.
He said: “My mistake was probably to convince myself that my potential with the GP24 was at the top, so I took it for granted that I would do the same again. Instead, the bike changed and I tried in every way to make that bike look like the ’24 again, without success. So that was a bit of a waste of time.
- READ MORE: Pecco Bagnaia admits Ducati are not the fastest ‘anymore’ after Aprilia dominate Thailand Grand Prix
He later added: “I’m very happy with my team, my technicians. My mechanics deserve a statue for the number of times they assembled and disassembled everything.”
Bagnaia has reportedly signed for Aprilia ahead of 2027, so this will be the final year of a historic partnership. Pedro Acosta will replace him as Marc Marquez’s teammate.
The #63’s struggles continued at the Thailand Grand Prix last weekend as he qualified 13th and finished ninth (in both races), though it was a difficult weekend for Ducati across the board.
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