Fabio Di Giannantonio: “I know my potential, the results are not matching our level”

Fabio Di Giannantonio says he is “still building” in 2025 as he feels his results are not yet “matching our performances”.

The Italian, whose only MotoGP win came at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, has been on the podium twice in 2025: at the Grand Prix of the Americas and then in the Silverstone Sprint.

In general, though, results have fluctuated this year, with only three other top-five finishes: two fifths in Argentina, and another fifth in the Spanish Grand Prix.

They are results which leave Di Giannantonio feeling there is margin for improvement.

“I don’t want to be arrogant saying this, but I know my potential, I know what I can do,” Fabio Di Giannantonio told MotoGP.com.

“The results are not matching our performances and our level.

“Let’s say that I wanted to be a little more complete at this point in the season, but for many reasons we are still building the ‘Optimus Fabio’ – like Transformers.”

The 2025 season has marked Di Giannantonio’s first in MotoGP on a factory contract. For the VR46 Racing Team rider, it means he now has the “tools” to win.

“I think the factory package is different,” he said.

“Now I have the tools to try to win.

“Working closely with Gigi [Dall’Igna, Ducati Corse General Manager] and other Ducati staff, it’s different for sure.

“It’s good and it’s what you need to win in MotoGP now, you need this kind of support and this team around to perform a win.

“Having so many people working so hard gives me a huge motivation to give always 100 per cent.

“I grew up with my father saying ‘We are the result of the five people that you are most with,’ and it’s true, at the end, because if you are in a garage where everyone is giving 120 per cent, you give it, too. It’s like this.”

Di Giannantonio’s off-season was complicated by a couple of injuries, one from last summer and another from the first day of preseason testing in February.

It was a sequence that was difficult to handle mentally for the Italian, especially with the expectations that came with the aforementioned factory contract.

“It’s been kind of a rollercoaster because I trained so much, I did so much work this winter to recover from the injury of last year and we were so ready for the first test,” he said.

“Then we got another injury, so we had to start from zero again.

“It’s been tough, especially mentally, because for sure when you arrive in that point when you have to perform, when you have the factory bike with the factory support, and you have to give a lot of information and develop the bike but you’re not 100 per cent, it’s tough.”

Ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, Di Giannantonio sits fifth in the MotoGP riders’ standings, 16 points behind teammate Franco Morbidelli after eight rounds.