Ducati, Marco Melandri already going hard on Pecco Bagnaia

The’former MotoGP centaur Marco Melandri in an interview with GPone spoke bluntly about the situation in Ducati between Pecco Bagnaia and the official Borgo Panigale team. After the’idyll of the past few years, the arrival of Marc Marquez and the simultaneous crisis of the Piedmontese centaur seem to have changed relations within the team forever. “Pecco’s situation I think is a real enigma, because no one can understand his 2025, not even those who raced. I have also talked about it with colleagues, and it is inexplicable how a rider can go from winning a race to not having the slightest confidence”.

Martino Davidi

“I, when I was racing for Ducati and I was struggling, if it was going well I could do a fifth place, but then you go back to the levels of always – continued Melandri -. Honestly, I don’t see big changes in the 2026 World Championship, since the bikes will always be the same”. Bagnaia has said he wants to stay, but the relationship is not the same as before: “Seen from the outside, it seems to me that the relationship between the parties has slowly crumbled. If Pecco and Ducati were once husband and wife, now they are mere relatives. Between them, I no longer see that harmony and that bond that was so strong and close that they pushed them together to go further. I think he will not stay in 2027, then maybe I am wrong”.

On the’other side of the box, Marc Marquez has dominated: “I think there is little to say about what has happened this year. Marquez has dominated the season, showing that he is at a higher level than everyone else. Unfortunately, then came the Mandalika accident, but in some ways that injury was almost a good thing, because he was exhausted, he wanted to get the weight of winning the title and all that tension off his shoulders. This forced rest allowed him to recharge the energy he needed to come back even stronger at the’beginning of next year”.

Macio made a prediction for 2026: “I hope that the World Cup is not already written, because everyone would like fiery races and thrilling challenges to the last. However, I remain of the opinion that there will be no big surprises, because Marc Marquez remains at a level far above everyone else”.

On Marquez’s possible return to Honda: “I don’t think it will happen I think he will close his career in Red. In Ducati he knows the environment and knows how they work, plus they are very immediate in meeting his requests. The only reason he might return to Honda would be to secure a nice retirement, but I don”t think he needs it.