Pecco Bagnaia vows to stop doing “something useless” which “doesn’t help engineers”

Francesco Bagnaia may have experienced his second podium-less MotoGP event in a row at Silverstone but the Italian was not alone in facing difficulties with the GP25 at the British track.

Team-mate Marc Marquez salvaged a close podium from his most difficult weekend as a factory Ducati rider, while Fabio di Giannantonio dropped from third in the Sprint to tenth at the chequered flag of the grand prix.

However, speaking on the eve of this weekend’s Aragon round, VR46 rider di Giannantonio felt the restarted race masked his potential.

“Silverstone, I think, has been quite a turning point for us, because we really understood many, many things from this bike, finally,” di Giannantonio said on Thursday.

“I think here we can start with a proper setup, in a proper way the weekend.

“I hope that here we have all the cards to play, to make a stable weekend and try to perform like we want.”

Interestingly, Diggia appeared to back up Bagnaia’s comments about the front-end feeling of the GP25, describing it as a kind of "filter".

“With the moves that we've done in Silverstone, we've improved this feeling. And I was also faster compared to the previous rounds,” he said.

“For sure, this bike has a kind of filter with the front.

“But we have done just seven rounds. I think we have plenty of races ahead of us and plenty of tests to improve it.”

Bagnaia finished sixth in the Silverstone Sprint before crashing out of the grand prix, costing him further ground to second in the standings, Alex Marquez.

Although acknowledging Aragon will be another weekend of “working” on his current issues, Bagnaia underlined that seeking to exactly replicate the GP24’s front with the GP25 is “useless”.

“I want to take a step back and try not to compare last year’s bike to this year’s bike, because it's something useless and it's not helping also the engineers,” explained Bagnaia.

“So we will try to solve it with our bike, try different things and see if we can think out of the [box], if we can find something.”

Did Marc Marquez help GP25 development?

Did the problems suffered by Marc Marquez at Silverstone provide the team with new clues?

“It's true that Silverstone was critical for both [riders] and for the first time, for Marc,” Bagnaia replied. 

“It’s helping for the team [to have more data], but it's not a good thing because we want to be at the front. 

"[But] also, bad results sometimes can help to understand the direction, and maybe we found something.”

Nonetheless, Bagnaia, like many riders, confirmed he would pick front-end feel over rear grip if forced to choose.

“Absolutely, [to] have a lot of confidence with the front. I need to have a sharper front, more [sensitive] front and I can sit back with a rear that is not so grippy, but was always like this and now just have to understand what to do with this bike to have the same [feeling].”

Although Bagnaia endured a nightmare 2024 Aragon event - struggling on the dirty surface then colliding with Alex Marquez while on course for a podium in the grand prix - it was also the venue of his debut MotoGP victory over Marc Marquez in 2021.

“That’s a race that I will always remember, my first win in MotoGP, so it will always be part of me and I would like to repeat it, the same fight with the same result would be fantastic,” he said.

“But let's see, we know fast Marc is everywhere, but [especially] on this track and we just need to work to find back my feeling.

“It is what it is and I need just to focus on the positives and try to take the motivation from also re-watching races and think about what happened here.”

Sunday’s eighth round of the season will also be followed by a rare day of official testing.

“[it’s] super important, more laps we can do, more laps of testing with items we can have is just better for us,” Bagnaia said.

Monday should also see Bagnaia get time to try the latest Ducati chassis, already in use with Marc Marquez.