Pecco Bagnaia on Yamaha rumour: “I saw posts of me in blue leathers… It’s not true”

Pecco Bagnaia addressed internet rumours that he could be a dream target for Yamaha next season, despite having a contract with Ducati until the end of 2026.

Italian media suggested that Yamaha's wishful and idealistic signing would be Bagnaia.

But he dismissed those claims at the Aragon MotoGP.

“That, I don't understand,” he said after Friday practice. “Because when there's a signed contract, like I said on Thursday in Silverstone, I will never quit what I signed. This is something that will never change in my life.

“I want to stay in Ducati, Ducati want me to stay… until the finish of this contract and also the next one. So I don't why.

“I started hearing a lot, seeing a lot of posts of me with [photoshopped] blue leathers.

“It's true that a rider like me that is in some hard moment, people can start thinking ‘maybe he will go’. But it's not what is happening to me.”

Pecco Bagnaia explains Aragon MotoGP bike changes

Friday at the Aragon MotoGP saw Bagnaia make more changes to both bike set-up and riding style in his quest to unlock the Ducati GP25’s potential.

The double world champion felt he had reasonable pace on used tyres, but on new soft tyres he was left 0.788s behind team-mate Marc Marquez, in ninth place.

“We are trying different things and it's not an easy situation because the bike is the same as the previous races, so we are trying to find different solutions,” said Bagnaia, who was trying the ‘longer’ Ohlins front fork.

“Today we decided to go with the long forks, and the feeling was the same, more or less.

“I'm struggling to put speed on the entrance [to the corners] so it's the same limit that I’m having from the start [with the GP25].

“And in this track, where the grip is very low, it's even worse because you don't get the confidence to enter fast.

“When I try to enter fast, I lose the front, and it becomes worse with the time attack using the new soft rear.

“With the medium rear, I was quite confident with the pace. I was trying to be consistent with the used tyre and the pace wasn't bad - apart from Marc, that at the moment is on another level.

“But considering the others, we were very close.

“Then as soon we put the soft rear, I started to struggle more. I only dropped five tenths, and I started to have a lot of front locking. I was losing the front a lot, and the understeer was huge.

“So we just need to change a bit the setup and maybe the balance of the bike for tomorrow, and try to find different solutions.”

Pecco Bagnaia: "I had 30 metres of locking"

Bagnaia has also tried to move away from his natural hard-braking riding style.

“The one of braking as much as I can, like I was doing before, is not working [with this bike],” he said.

“I'm losing the front while I'm straight. Today I had 30 metres of locking. So it's unbelievable and I need to do different things.”

Nevertheless, Bagnaia insists “winning” remains his target this weekend.

“I'm an optimistic guy. I know that we are speaking about details and that maybe tomorrow morning, some little changes can make a huge difference.

“We will try at least to start from the front row and then try to win the race.

“We know perfectly how Marc is strong here. He's making the difference. In Sector 2, he is giving to me five tenths. So we need to solve some problems.

“But apart from that, we just need to be focused on the work because we know that the potential that Marc is showing is there.

“So we need to find a way also for myself.”

Qualifying won’t just be about starting as close to the front as possible, but securing a place on the grippier part of the grid.

“We spoke about [the grid in the Safety Commission], we asked to clean it,” he confirmed. “But the problem is not that it’s very dusty, it's more that the grip is very low.

“Starting today from third position on the grid, I spun until the first corner. Then I started from second position, in the middle, and I just spun a bit in third gear.”