Francesco Bagnaia: “For the first time, Marc had the same feeling as me”
Francesco Bagnaia said “riders were overtaking me like I wasn't there” in the closing laps of Saturday’s British MotoGP Sprint.
For double MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia, fading from third to sixth in Saturday’s Silverstone Sprint represented the latest chapter in his ongoing handling woes with the Ducati GP25.
The difference was that the fast Silverstone circuit exacerbated the problem while, Bagnaia believes, title-leading team-mate Marc Marquez also suffered from the same issues for the first time.
Bagnaia held third behind the Marquez brothers, Alex and Marc, until a dramatic decline - caused by a loss of rear grip - saw him overtaken by the sister GP25 of Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46), plus Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) and Johann Zarco (LCR Honda).
Rear grip might seem unconnected to front handling but in a detailed explanation on Saturday evening, Bagnaia spoke of how the lack of front performance caused him to overwork the rear.
“Riders were overtaking me like I wasn't there”
“I started well. I used a mistake by Fabio [Quartararo] to overtake him and then I tried to follow the first two guys. And after four laps I completely finished the rear tyre,” Bagnaia began.
“That is strange. But not for the tyre, but for my bike, which is not helping me to turn.
“Every time I’m braking and entering the corners, I’m not in the correct line. So I need to force a lot the rear to make the bike turn, and I finished it.
"Then it was a case of survival until the last laps, with riders overtaking me like I wasn't there.”
“This circuit is one of the worst for tyre consumption [anyway] and if we are not solving the problem of turning, it will be difficult also with the medium [compound] in the grand prix,” he warned.
“I cannot understand if I'm using a soft or hard front tyre”
One of the standout quotes from Bagnaia’s calm and detailed debrief came when he revealed:
“I’ll give you an example: For the first time this season, I cannot understand if I'm using a soft front tyre or a hard front tyre.
"Those are two completely different things, and for me, it's the same, riding the bike. Right now, this is the situation.”
Alex Marquez "doing what I was doing last year”
Silverstone was also Marc Marquez’s most difficult Saturday of the season.
The Spaniard missed the front row for the first time - and was behind Bagnaia - in qualifying, then lost his perfect streak of 2025 Sprint wins when beaten by Alex in the afternoon.
Bagnaia believes it’s a consequence of the track layout exaggerating the GP25’s handling deficiencies.
“Marc is not performing like normal, that is super good and always to [overcome] the problems. And this track is also making his life difficult.
“So right now, when you're looking at Alex Marquez’s data, he is doing what I was doing last year. And with the same confidence.
"And what I’m doing this season is not comparable to last year.”
But while Marc still speaks of the GP25 being "the same" as the GP24 used by Alex, Bagnaia - the only rider to move from a GP24 to GP25 - is adamant there is a significant difference in ‘feeling’.
“I think they are theoretically similar, but the feeling is quite different,” he said.
“Marc had the same feeling as me”
After perhaps being made to feel he was alone in experiencing the handling issues, Bagnaia highlighted: “For the first time this season, Marc had the same feeling as me.”
But the factory team-mates diverged in terms of a solution.
An openly “struggling” Marquez spoke of the rider needing to overcome the problems:
“When you are trying a lot of set-ups and you don’t feel comfortable, it means you are the problem; the bike is not the problem, because this is something that some riders misunderstand.
“When you try three, four different set-ups and the problems are still there, it means you are the problem, the bike is not the problem. So, for tomorrow I need to work on my riding style.”
However, Bagnaia regards the situation as “a failure of everybody if we are not succeeding” and that Marc’s difficulties are a validation of what he’s feeling.
“We are working hard, and all the team, all the engineers are on it. It’s a failure of everybody if we are not succeeding, so we are trying to solve every problem,” Bagnaia said.
“I’m giving my maximum every time, they are giving their maximum. We are trying to analyse everything.
“For the first time this season, Marc had the same feeling as me. He was just better because he was able to follow Alex for more laps, and then he dropped a lot in the last laps.
“But he was more or less feeling the same. So being in the same direction will help absolutely to understand what to do.”
“A huge problem for my riding style”
Bagnaia insisted that a solution will only take the form of “small details”, but at present it’s causing a “huge problem for my riding style”.
“I think that it’s little things right now, because like I said, the bikes technically are similar [to last year]. But it’s the small details that are not giving me the same feeling with the front that I always had from 2021 to 2024.
“It’s the first time that I cannot feel the front. So this is a huge problem for my riding style, which I’m trying to adapt to the bike. But I’m destroying the tyres, I’m not happy riding, so it’s not easy.”
Track temperatures were nine degrees cooler this year, but for comparison, Alex Marquez won this year's Sprint with a race time 3.728s slower than Enea Bastianini's victory on a GP24 last year.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
