Sepang gave cause for hope, Buriram provided confirmation—Francesco Bagnaia is competitive again after a crisis year in 2025—Tardozzi certain: “He’s back.”
After his crisis year in 2025, Francesco Bagnaia proved himself competitive again in the preparatory tests for the new MotoGP season. Already at the Sepang test in Malaysia, the former world champion emphasized that he had regained his old, good feeling. The Ducati no longer pushes when braking.
However, the two days of testing in Buriram (Thailand) were more decisive, because it was during the same test twelve months ago that Bagnaia first encountered the problems that then plagued him for much of the season and plunged him into crisis.
“Compared to last year, it’s much better,” he says with relief. “Last year, the first day of testing here was very difficult, and now I felt better with the new bike from the very first moment.”
“I think that when you feel good on the bike, riding is just fun. I’m really enjoying it. It makes it easier.” Bagnaia mainly worked with the smaller tank for the sprint races. That had also been a problem for him in the past. On the first day of testing, he completed a satisfactory sprint simulation. He broke off a race simulation on the second day after a few laps. “Something wasn’t satisfying him,” reveals team manager Davide Tardozzi, “and he stopped early.”
“He wasn’t doing badly, but he stopped because he wanted to go faster than he was able to.” In qualifying, Bagnaia was very competitive and on par with his teammate Marc Marquez.
Tardozzi believes that Bagnaia could have been even faster in his qualifying lap. That’s why he’s convinced overall: “We’re absolutely delighted to have ‘Pecco’ back because it looks like ‘Pecco’ will be one of the contenders for the world championship title.”
The current Ducati is better suited to Bagnaia’s riding style
After the Sepang test, Bagnaia praised the Ducati engineers for their work, which helped him regain his confidence. So does the current bike once again have the characteristics that suit him best?
“It’s different for me, but it suits my riding style better, and I can work with it better,” says Bagnaia. “Last year, I struggled from the start. As soon as I got here, it was a good start for me, but not like in Malaysia.”
“I had big problems in the race [in the fall]. It’s true, I was on the podium, but my feeling wasn’t the best. During this test, we worked pretty hard on new solutions, pretty hard to understand the bike.“
”I think we’ve taken another step forward. We’re still missing something, and I hope we’ll find it during the race weekend, but I’m satisfied.” And what is Bagnaia still missing? “A little more consistency, i.e., repeatability when braking.”
“Sometimes I can brake well, sometimes the bike starts to shake a little. We’re getting into the corners faster, so we need to be more consistent.” In terms of aerodynamics, he opted for his preferred 2024 package.
Bagnaia has also clarified his future in recent days. After the first day of testing, he confirmed that he has made his decision. Next year, he will be Marco Bezzecchi’s teammate at Aprilia.
With his future settled and the test runs going very well, Bagnaia is looking forward to the start of the season with confidence: ” I’m happy with how I feel after this test. The preseason ended much better than last year, so I feel really good.“
”Now it’s time to start the season and fight, but at the moment I can only say: I’m happy. Pretty solid work during the test. Malaysia was important, but for me this test was much more important when I think back to last year.”