Without feeling at the front, Francesco Bagnaia suffers his first retirement of the season

The double world champion MotoGP could count on his consistency to stay in the fight for the title until now. This time, on the second lap of Saturday's Sprint, Francesco Bagnaia made a mistake. The first of his season. The Ducati bearing the number 63 went into the gravel at the Dunlop Chicane, and the Italian couldn't believe his eyes. He, who has been on another planet since mid-2021 with his Ducati (eleven Grand Prix victories in 2024), must now deal with a machine that no longer offers him what he wants.

Because the fall of the man nicknamed "Pecco" can be attributed to a cause he has been talking about since the beginning of the season. Lacking feel on the front end, Bagnaia cannot use his strengths, particularly powerful braking, to widen the gap on the competition. While his Ducati GP25 is far from being a bad machine, as Marc Márquez's performances and his own third place in the championship attest, Bagnaia must contend with the exceptional season of Álex Márquez on a Ducati GP24, with which he worked wonders last year.

A fall that is difficult to understand for Bagnaia

At the end of Friday's race, Valentino's protégé readily admitted that his usual style wouldn't work with this new machine. Now, what he's trying to change has clearly not solved his problems, as Saturday's sprint demonstrated.

“Unfortunately, this season I don't have the feeling I like. These kinds of crashes can happen, if you look at the data, I was going slower and leaning the bike less than on other laps. I still lost the front end, so I don't have the feeling to do what I want. This season, I'm better in left turns because I take them differently, but I don't feel the front of the bike this season. On that lap, I leaned the bike less, but in fact I leaned it more than last year. Maybe that's the reason.”

Almost resigned, the Turin native still wants to continue his analytical work to finally manage to escape from a rather negative spiral. While he is one of the three winners this season, along with the Márquez brothers, he knows that he owes his victory in Austin to the fall of his garage mate. "I can't attack the braking the way I want because every time I try to get some speed, I feel like the front could leave me at any moment. It's a big limitation for me, but that's how it is. I just need to analyze everything and try to fix the problems."

Marquez, an advantage of not having driven the GP24?

While Marc Márquez managed to dominate the other GP2024 drivers and compete with the best in 23, the Spaniard seems capable of doing the same with the GP25. This new version of the Demosedici seems slightly less dominant than its predecessor, or at least less accessible to all drivers. Álex Márquez is ahead of Pecco Bagnaia with a GP24, while at VR46, it is Franco Morbidelli, who also has last year's model, who gets the better of Fabio Di Giannantonio with a GP25. For Bagnaia, the fact that Márquez went directly from the GP23 to the GP25, without experiencing the wonderful sensations of the model in between, may be an advantage.

"Marc has a fantastic feeling, coming from the GP23, which was fast but with limitations. He's riding a better bike, and since he hasn't experienced the GP24, he just feels like it's a better bike. In my case, I feel like it's not a better bike, because I no longer have the feeling I need on the front. Marc can also ride a tractor and be competitive. In my case, it's not the same, I need more confidence on the front and at the moment I'm struggling. I don't know what's happening with Diggia, but if I look at the data of Álex and Fermín (Aldeguer, on the podium with his Ducati Gresini on Saturday. Ed.), they're doing exactly the same thing I did last year. That's something we have to focus on."

No. 63 does not intend to stop searching in any case: "There's always something to do, I hope so anyway. Maybe tonight, by analyzing everything compared to the last few seasons, we can find a way to have the same sensations on the GP25."

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