Davide Tardozzi says Ducati have struggled to help Francesco Bagnaia gain the “confidence” he needs with the GP26 after the rider crashed out of the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Bagnaia, who was running in 11th place behind Johann Zarco, lost control of his Ducati GP26 mid-corner and slid out, marking his seventh DNF in the past nine races.
Six of those seven retirements, dating back to his crash at the 2025 San Marino Grand Prix, have come from crashes. The only exception was a puncture during last October’s Malaysian Grand Prix that cost him a potential podium.
The struggles continued into qualifying, where Bagnaia crashed again and managed only P11. While Fabio Di Giannantonio took pole on a VR46 machine in that session, Bagnaia’s weekend never really recovered from that early setback.
Davide Tardozzi admits Ducati have not helped Francesco Bagnaia find his ‘confidence’ in 2026
Bagnaia also found it tough to get past Fermin Aldeguer during the race, even though the Gresini rider was just back from a long injury layoff. Aldeguer hadn’t raced since November after breaking his femur in January but still managed to finish eighth.
Tardozzi felt that starting 11th set the tone for Bagnaia’s struggles and noted that his retirement wasn’t down to bad luck. Instead, he pointed out that Ducati haven’t yet been able to give him the confidence he needs on the GP26 this season.
Tardozzi explained, as quoted by Motorsport.com: “It’s not bad luck. It’s a mistake stemming from the fact that we have not been able to give him the confidence he needs to race at his level.”
He added: “But he himself has admitted that the problem originates from his mistake in Saturday’s qualifying.”
What has Pecco Bagnaia said about his crash during the 2026 Brazilian Grand Prix?
After the race, Bagnaia acknowledged that his qualifying crash had put him on the back foot for the weekend, though he didn’t believe it was directly responsible for his race-ending fall. Instead, as Tardozzi also noted, Bagnaia pointed to a lack of comfort with the GP26 as the main issue. He said he felt unable to push the bike and described himself as being “at the mercy” of it.
“Starting from the back isn’t ideal, but the way I crashed today has nothing to do with it,” he told Sky Sports Italy. “I was uncomfortable, I wasn’t able to push, and I didn’t have a good feeling. I just didn’t have any. I was at the mercy of the bike.
“Sooner or later, we’ll get back to where we need to be. We need to rebuild our speed, and it’s not an easy path. I made things difficult for myself in qualifying, but today in the race I would have struggled even starting from the front.”
Ducati will now look ahead hoping that they can turn their fortunes around at round 13 when MotoGP travels to Mexico.
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