Two races into the 2025 season, the two-time champion Francesco Bagnaia had an uncharacteristically slow start to the season on the GP25, which he previously described more as the GP24.9. Bagnaia confessed he was missing that ‘feeling’ with his new title challenger Ducati.
His new teammate and Ducati sophomore Marc Marquez is gelling brilliantly with the new machine so far, and given his momentum so far, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to consider this season as one to lose for Marc. Already achieving two sprint and race wins, the Marquez brothers continue to clamp down on the top spots of the podium.
Finishing fourth in the latest Argentina Grand Prix, behind both Alex Marquez and Franco Morbidelli on the GP24s, perhaps there is some merit in Bangaia’s claims of struggling to find a feeling on the latest iteration of Ducati’s machinery.
But the fact remains that Marc is on the same machine, and the Spaniard seems to have no problems taming the GP25.
Even though Bagnaia understands the costs of his woeful start to the season, finding his late-2024 form seems a monumental task, given that the Italian had already made attempts to revert his machinery to resemble last year’s iteration.
The 31 point deficit to Marc is undoubtedly a less than ideal start to 2025, but the Italian expresses that the situation he finds himself in is not as bad as the years prior.
“This is not the worst situation I’ve been in. Last year was worse in the first part of the season. But the difference is that this time I have an opponent who is more consistent. Marc will not make any mistakes.
“I am missing my feeling from last year. We made a step this weekend, but I was still missing something with the control of the rear tyre. The feeling is a bit strange at the moment. We need to solve it.”
The Italian had previously crawled back from a 91-point deficit to clinch his first title from Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in 2022, and again from Jorge Martin in 2023. But the difference this year, as he outlined, is that mistakes from the 8-time world champion are much less seldom.
The root causes of Bagnaia’s issues with the GP25 seems to stem from issues with the rear tyre, perhaps its the loss of confidence which contributed to his uncharacteristic form.
With a few races until the European rounds, and with Bagnaia lulling a return to the GP24, which he used to win 11 out of 20 races last year, it’s yet to be seen whether the Italian could begin to regain his form. Especially given that the Austin track has long been a battleground of his teammate.
