Ducati in Trouble: For Pecco Bagnaia, It’s No Coincidence

Ducati rider Pecco Bagnaia commented despondently on the difficulties the Borgo Panigale bikes faced at Mandalika. For the first time in years, no Ducati bike finished in the top five, and for the Piedmontese rider, this is no coincidence.

“The step backward we’ve taken over the last two years has really shown on this track, where you need top speed and grip,” stated the two-time MotoGP world champion bluntly. “We don’t have as much connection with the throttle anymore, and on a track like this, you pay the price.”

Bagnaia crashed after five laps: “I lost the front end; it just closed up. I simply didn’t have enough speed, and when I tried to push a little harder, it closed up. Unfortunately, I lacked speed. This is a track where grip isn’t at its best, especially with a tire of this specification. You need a lot of rear-end support, and unfortunately, without it, you struggle even more. From the data, it seems the other Ducati riders had more of it, but even for them, it wasn’t ideal.”

On the controversy front, Bagnaia’s struggles compared to Marquez’s relatively better results have reignited the debate on a sensitive issue: whether the Desmosedici’s development was tailored to the Spanish rider’s characteristics, thereby penalizing the Italian. Team manager Davide Tardozzi firmly rejected this claim: “It’s absolutely not true that Marc Marquez tailored the bike’s development to himself—it’s absolutely not true. The bike wasn’t built for him; that’s just bar talk. We’ve worked to get the best out of all our riders; some have found it suited them, and others haven’t.”