I rode the 2023 Ducati, the GP25 is "the best bike that I’ve ever ridden"

Fabio di Giannantonio’s Austrian MotoGP ended with a dramatic engine failure on his Ducati GP25.

It marked a third successive grand prix non-score for the VR46 rider, who had only been circulating in 14th at the time.

The Italian’s 2025 form has been something of a rollercoaster, with qualifying results swinging wildly from 2nd to 17th and race finishes from 3rd to 16th.

Factory rider Francesco Bagnaia has also struggled for consistency on the latest GP25, his results oscillating between 1st and 12th in the dry this season.

By contrast, team-mate and title leader Marc Marquez has notched up a 12-race win streak, reaching the podium in every race he’s finished this season, barring a recovery ride at Jerez.

No doubting Ducati GP25 potential

Di Giannantonio rode a '23-spec Ducati last year, like Marquez. But Di Giannantonio also now has a factory bike.

Despite the latest disappointment, di Giannantonio remains convinced of the GP25’s potential.

“We are trying to push every weekend as a team, the bike is an incredible bike but for sure it needs a few things to go that fast. And sometimes we were able to find them and sometimes not,” he said.

“But still, it’s the best bike that I’ve ever ridden in MotoGP. I already have three podiums. Last year I got zero podiums. So I don’t see it really bad.

“If you see my season, in the Qatar GP we were pretty strong and I got kicked out [wide]. And without my mistake in Germany [while second], the standings would be different.”

Currently tied on points for fifth in the world championship with team-mate Franco Morbidelli (GP24) and KTM's Pedro Acosta, di Giannantonio feels he is still paying the price for missing pre-season testing due to injury.

“The [set-up] window for a bike is more or less the same. The difficult thing is to be always in the window,” he explained.

“Building the set-up on race weekends, not having tests, has always been difficult.

“If you think that you can fight for the championship without having any tests at the beginning of the season, it’s not that easy when you’re against Pecco, Marc and other champions that we have in the grid.

“So we’re just doing our best when we can.

“Alex [Marquez] with the 24 bike is doing an amazing job. Franky [Morbidelli] is going good. Fermin [Aldeguer] is doing great in his first year.

“I think it’s just a matter of the rider and the team finding the best balance for the rider.”

Turning to his spectacular Red Bull Ring retirement, Diggia said he had no warning of an engine issue:

“I was trying to manage [the rear tyre] because starting from just 15th, our only weapon was to fight at the end of the race with a better tyre.

“I had to be patient and wait, but then it was not possible to finish the race.

“The bike was feeling quite normal. Our power on the straight was not fantastic but it was feeling quite okay… and then it happened, so quite unexpected, honestly.”

Morbidelli finished in eleventh place at the Red Bull Ring.