Ducati: Pernat Speaks Candidly About Pecco Bagnaia’s Situation

The story between Ducati and Pecco Bagnaia is coming to an end in the worst possible way. After two MotoGP World Championships and two runner-up finishes, the Piedmontese rider has literally fallen apart, and this season the gap between him and his teammate Marc Marquez has become embarrassing. At Misano, while the Catalan rider triumphed and jumped to the top of the World Championship standings, Bagnaia endured yet another bitter day, ending with a crash as he struggled to finish in the points.

MotoGP manager Carlo Pernat told *La Repubblica* that the main cause of it all was precisely the Catalan champion’s arrival at Ducati, and not a technical issue: “Marc is a cannibal, and Pecco hasn’t been as mentally strong as a world champion should be. You can’t lose your technique or riding skills—it’s just a mental issue.”

According to Pernat, Bagnaia “sees only enemies around him, and once you lose your momentum, it’s hard to recover. Let’s hope something changes next year, that the desire for redemption at Aprilia brings him back to who he was.”

Speaking to GPOne, Pernat praised Marquez: “If he were the Marquez from four or five years ago, I’d say no one could touch him the way he rode, even if he crashed sometimes. Now he’s even changed his riding style: he doesn’t crash anymore; he manages things given his current situation. Because the years go by, he’s had shoulder problems, but he manages it all. And he manages it so well that he makes the others crash—so to speak.”