Francesco Bagnaia remains optimistic despite a difficult start to the 2026 MotoGP season, believing his current situation at Ducati is an improvement over last year, even if the results haven’t shown it yet.
The two-time champion had a rough year with the Desmosedici GP25 in 2025, falling from four consecutive title challenges to finishing fifth in the standings. That drop-off may have played a role in Ducati’s decision not to renew his contract for 2027.
There was some hope after pre-season testing, especially in Sepang, that Bagnaia could bounce back this year. Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola even joked that other teams should “go home” after watching Bagnaia’s pace. But so far, he hasn’t managed to turn that early promise into points.
Through the first two races of 2026 in Thailand and Brazil, Bagnaia has collected just ten points. Heading into this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, he sits thirteenth in the standings, while his teammate Marc Marquez is already up to fifth with thirty-four points.
Francesco Bagnaia feels 2026 is already a step up from last season, confident there’s more to come with the GP26
Bagnaia crashed for the seventh time in nine rounds when he dropped out of P11 at the Brazilian Grand Prix. But despite that, he still believes his situation is better than last year’s. He says he now feels able to make progress with the Ducati GP26 over a race weekend.
After 2025 ended, Bagnaia admitted he could have done more to adapt to the Ducati GP25, especially when it came to handling under braking. This year, though, it’s less about understanding the bike and more about not knowing why things aren’t clicking during races on the GP26.
“[The situation is] different because last year it was always very difficult to stay consistent during the sessions, to work and improve throughout,” Bagnaia said via quotes by Moto.it.
“Now I can improve during them and can feel differences between set-ups. The problem is only in races where I struggle a lot. So it’s better but we need to figure out what to do.”
Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi said after Brazil that they haven’t given Bagnaia “the confidence he needs” on this bike yet. It didn’t help that Bagnaia had crashes in both qualifying and the main race, managing only an eighth-place finish in the Sprint.
Even though Bagnaia believes he can now make improvements across a weekend, his results in Brazil didn’t really back that up. His session finishes ranged from ninth in FP1 and pre-qualifying practice, fourth in FP2, 11th in Q2, eighth in the Sprint Race and another crash during Sunday’s main event.