Ducati: “We have to find out what happened” after Francesco Bagnaia's Indonesian MotoGP "disaster"

Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi admits the factory still doesn’t understand what went wrong during Francesco Bagnaia’s disastrous Indonesian MotoGP weekend.

Mandalika saw Bagnaia hit a new low in an already miserable season, qualifying 16th, finishing last in the Sprint and crashing from the back of the field in the grand prix.

Most mystifying was that the rock bottom weekend came straight after Bagnaia dominated in Japan, winning both races from pole on a newly revised version of the GP25.

While Ducati continues to avoid confirming how much of Bagnaia’s current machine is now derived from last year's GP24, the factory has said the same package was used in Japan and Indonesia.

“Pecco faced a very difficult weekend after an incredible weekend in Japan,” Tardozzi told MotoGP.com. 

“We are really thinking about what happened, and Gigi and the engineers are already focused on this matter.

“We trust in the speed of Pecco, and we have to find out why this disaster happened this weekend.

“But we are all focused to again be on the top of the list in Phillip Island, which is one of Pecco's favourite racetracks.

“This week will be a really tough week for our engineers to think about what happened here.”

Asked if they have any idea what happened to cause such an extreme swing in the double MotoGP champion's form between Motegi and Mandalika, Tardozzi replied:

“Obviously not, because if we know what happened, we would already solve it. But we haven't solved yet and we are focused to do it before Phillip Island.

“It seems strange to us this problem, this lack of feeling from Pecco in this racetrack but it happens.

“We know that we have to be focused on Pecco's bike and Pecco's feeling because it seems that Ducati was not so bad by the end of the weekend.

“We struggled on Friday but then Fermin and Alex showed that the potential of the bike is there. So we have to think about it and find a solution.”

Tardozzi insisted: “I'm not worried because I trust absolutely Pecco and I trust our engineers.

“I still think that Pecco's speed is there, and I trust our engineers that they will find out the solution.”

With title-winning team-mate Marc Marquez out injured for the next two rounds, Bagnaia’s fortunes will be in the spotlight more than ever at Phillip Island and Sepang.