Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia believes Ducati have a clear issue that they still must fix to improve their race pace in 2026, yet Fabio Di Giannantonio feels the GP26 has bigger issues.
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia has arrived at Balaton Park for this week’s Hungarian Grand Prix in high spirits, having delivered his best race of the campaign so far in the Italian GP. Bagnaia finished third at Mugello last Sunday after even briefly fighting for the lead in his home race.
But two-time MotoGP champion Bagnaia is aware Ducati still have work to do with the GP26 to turn the latest iteration of the Desmosedici into a machine that is able to take the fight to Aprilia. Marco Bezzecchi won at Mugello for Aprilia, and boasted a 5.098s lead over Bagnaia.
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Francesco Bagnaia feels Ducati suffer ‘too much’ rear tyre wear
Bagnaia nearly lost third place on the final lap of the Italian GP to Trackhouse racer Ai Ogura, aboard his satellite Aprilia RS-GP, as well. Ogura overshot his attempted overtake on Bagnaia at Mugello’s final corner, which blew his chance to punish the Ducati star for eating his tyres.
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Bagnaia admits that tyre wear with the rear Michelin rubber is still a big concern for him and Ducati, as the 28-year-old’s rate of degradation has been causing him a lack of consistency in races. That said, the Turin native is happy with the Borgo Panigale brand’s progress so far.
“Mugello was great,” Bagnaia said, via quotes by GPOne. “It was a tough weekend, but we managed to improve a lot throughout the weekend. And, in the end, in the race, we managed to put in a strong performance.
“It’s true that we still lack a bit of consistency in race pace. In fact, we’re still wearing out the rear tyre too much. But we’re moving in the right direction, and since the test at Jerez, we’ve made progress practically every weekend.”
Fabio Di Giannantonio states that Ducati’s ‘problem’ is not tyre wear
But while Bagnaia highlights rear tyre wear as a cause for concern at Ducati, satellite star Di Giannantonio believes the biggest problem with the GP26 is not tyre degradation. Instead, the VR46 pilot suggests there are “many” other aspects where the Aprilia RS-GP is superior.
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“Our problem this season isn’t tyre wear,” Di Giannantonio explained, via GPOne. “There are many areas where we’re struggling compared to Aprilia. The truth is that they’re proving to be strong in all conditions and at all times. So, we need to improve a bit overall.”
One of the areas where the Aprilia RS-GP has often shown itself to be the superior package compared to the Ducati GP26 so far this year has been through how the bikes behave in the corners. The Aprilia has often been able to turn much more tightly than the Ducati thus far.
Speaking back in May, Di Giannantonio said Ducati “always” lack compared to Aprilia in the corners, as he and his fellow riders using the GP26 cannot attack the entry phase as well as their rivals. He even suggested that lacking on corner entry makes them worse on the exits.
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