Former champ admits Ducati’s GP25 no longer suits his style as Marc Márquez takes the Ducati high ground
There was a noticeable hint of resignation in Francesco Bagnaia’s tone at Le Mans, as the reigning double MotoGP World Champion confronted growing challenges adapting to Ducati’s latest prototype — the GP25. After a frustrating run of early-season races and with teammate Marc Márquez increasingly in the spotlight, Bagnaia admitted he now faces a personal crossroads with the bike’s development. One that demands a significant shift in his riding style.
In recent years, Bagnaia was the clear alpha within Ducati’s factory team. His strength on the brakes and confidence entering corners had become his hallmarks — traits that helped him clinch back-to-back world titles and won him 11 races in 2024. But through the first five rounds of the 2025 season, that edge appears to have disappeared.
Throughout the early flyaway races, the Italian has pressed the team for changes aimed at restoring his typical braking stability and front-end feel. But at Le Mans, where he ultimately crashed out in the Sprint after colliding with Maverick Viñales, Bagnaia offered a frank assessment of where things stand.
“We tried everything to find what I want, that is braking and entry in a more solid way. This season I feel much more movement from the front in this area, so today I just tried to adapt myself and do a step on my own. I’m not confident to do it, but it’s the only way to be more competitive. I’m not upset, but I feel mad that my greatest point, that was braking and entry, is not any more a good thing.”
Where Marquez has taken to the GP25 chassis like a duck to water after wrestling with the idiosyncratic GP23 chassis, and brother Alex has inherited a GP24 universally acknowledged to by one of the finest GP bikes ever created, Pecco has struggled with the shift from the GP24 to the latest Desmocedici.
“It’s not an easy process, because it’s from 2020 that I’m riding in this way,” he explained. “The bike was changing, but the feeling was very similar on braking and entry. And this season not, I can’t find this feeling back.”
Bagnaia’s frustration isn’t helped by the fact that his teammate — six-time MotoGP champion Marc Márquez — appears to be riding with growing confidence and now, crucially, with newer hardware. Ducati handed Márquez a new chassis at Le Mans, despite him riding for the satellite Gresini squad. That such a development went to Márquez before the factory’s previous lead rider caught wide attention in the paddock.
When asked about being second in line for the new frame, Bagnaia was disappointed but remained diplomatic.
“Hopefully we’ll have it by Aragon” he said.
The delay in receiving the updated chassis, coupled with his current rideability issues, has only deepened the sense that Bagnaia is entering one of the more complex phases of his Ducati career. While not operating at crisis levels — he remains third in the world championship standings heading into Round 6 — there are clear indications that the synergy between rider, machine and team isn’t what it used to be.
Bagnaia appears to have accepted that his approach has to shift, at least for now — from dictating terms to learning how to live with a motorcycle that no longer plays to his natural instincts.
