The situation in Francesco Bagnaia’s pit is becoming increasingly puzzling—what is going on at Ducati? We have never seen a situation like this in motorsport before.
I can well imagine how many of you sat in front of the TV shaking your heads as you watched Francesco Bagnaia’s weekend in Australia. What’s going on with him this year is, I think, the strangest situation I’ve ever seen in motorsport.
How can someone dominate completely in Motegi and then be completely lost again in Mandalika and Phillip Island? It’s simply inexplicable and leaves you perplexed. Bagnaia is just as perplexed. I believe what he says.
Journalist and author Mat Oxley spoke to Gigi Dall’Igna in Indonesia. Dall’Igna told him that they installed the 2024 ride height system during Monday’s test in Misano. That is said to have been the decisive technical change.
We have known since spring that Ducati changed the ride height system for the GP25 in order to find even more performance. It sounds plausible that the return to the old system meant that Bagnaia regained his old feeling on the stop-and-go track at Motegi.
And it also sounds plausible that his feeling in Mandalika disappeared again with the harder rear tire carcass. Incidentally, Fermin Aldeguer gets on wonderfully with this special tire, as his second place in Spielberg showed.
But Phillip Island showed that something fundamental is wrong in Bagnaia’s pit. On Friday, he already put one bike aside in both practice sessions because it was shaking extremely and was undriveable for Bagnaia.
He was okay with the other bike. Bagnaia explained that both bikes are basically technically identical. How can there be such a discrepancy? It’s inexplicable, and I believe him when he says he’s at a loss and wants the engineers to explain why this is the case. And how can you be reasonably competitive in qualifying, only to be more than two seconds slower in the sprint? It’s inexplicable. His bike was also extremely shaky in the warm-up.
When asked about it after the Grand Prix, Bagnaia simply replied: “It’s better not to talk about it. I’m sorry.” Basically, the riders just give their feedback and share their feelings. The engineers then have to work on the setup based on that.
Body language = clear feedback AustralianGP pic.twitter.com/1DLtInz3wF
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 17, 2025
The top riders are all very sensitive. At this point, I would like to share a fascinating story that Jorge Martin told us in Misano. If you remember, he coasted to a stop during the sighting lap because the bike’s engine shut down in eco mode.
This meant he had to switch to his second bike. “It’s the same configuration, but I don’t know. I’m extremely sensitive, even when it comes to a millimeter on the handlebars,” Martin described. “They build the position of the handlebar grips the same on both bikes.”
“They’re the same handlebars, they have a reference. And yet I always feel that on one bike the position of the left grip is different.” I think that vividly illustrates how sensitive the riders are. Bagnaia’s pit crew are absolute professionals. His crew chief Cristian Gabbarini turned Casey Stoner’s unrideable Ducati into a winning machine, and he also turned Jorge Lorenzo into a Ducati winner. And then, of course, there are the world championship titles with Bagnaia.
Shaking down the straight @PeccoBagnaia‘s stability issues continue ⚠️AustralianGP pic.twitter.com/sD2hSiitZm
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 18, 2025
But something is fundamentally wrong. We can’t judge that from the outside. To say it’s all down to the rider would be the easy answer, and I think the wrong one. Because after the debacle in the sprint, things went at least a little better in the race.
Crash in the race because he didn’t want to finish last
The top 10 were within reach when Bagnaia crashed while in twelfth place. “The bike was much more stable, but it felt heavier and was therefore more difficult to ride,” he reports on his race Sunday. “Nevertheless, it was a little better.”
“I was able to push harder, I was able to ride at a pace that was faster than the riders in front of me, so I caught up. I noticed that I had less movement on the bike when I stayed compact on the bike.”
“That made it much more difficult to ride, but still a little better. When you’re at the limit, maybe even a little over it, you can easily crash. I accepted it because I told myself: I’m not going to finish last again.”
@PeccoBagnaia‘s Sunday has just gone from bad to worse AustralianGP pic.twitter.com/ZRZ83o3sQN
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 19, 2025
“So I pushed. I accepted that a crash was possible—and I crashed. Luckily, the race was almost over, there were six or five laps left, I don’t remember exactly, but I caught up. The top 10 would have been possible.”
I mean, that clearly shows that Bagnaia really gives his all and fights as a rider. The coming weekend in Malaysia will be interesting, because the winter test took place in Sepang in February. Then we might be able to make a comparison with back then. Indonesia was special because of the tire carcass, and Phillip Island has a special layout. Sepang is a more “normal” race track. That could be the yardstick for how Bagnaia is doing—as good as in Motegi or as bad as last time.
