Pecco Bagnaia on his 2025 MotoGP struggles: ‘I didn’t recognise myself’

Double MotoGP world champion Pecco Bagnaia admits “I wasn’t recognising myself” at various points this season as he has struggled for form on the factory Ducati.

The Italian has been a shadow of his former self from the off in 2025 on the GP25, which he has not been able to adapt his riding style to.

After 18 rounds, Pecco Bagnaia has just two grand prix victories to his credit compared to 11 last year, while team-mate Marc Marquez ran away with the title on 11 Sunday wins and 14 sprint successes.

With four rounds to go, Bagnaia trails Marquez by 271 points in the standings.

Having made an apparent breakthrough in Japan, where a switch to GP24 parts - in particular the ride height device - helped him to a clean sweep of the event, Bagnaia plummeted to Earth at the Indonesian Grand Prix.

He was almost 30s off the win in last in the sprint and crashed while running at the back in the grand prix in a performance that has raised even more questions about his form this season.

“My side of the box was working a lot, the engineers were working a lot to try to adapt and try to let me adapt to the bike,” Bagnaia said in a new interview with the official MotoGP website.

“But it was something that was not clear, that was not adapting to that bike but changing the bike.

“It was not easy, because when your team-mate is winning and you are doing bad results it’s not easy to believe.

“But they never stopped working. I wasn’t recognising me - I think nobody recognised me.

“And some people started to doubt my potential. I never lost my confidence. I was always sure that my potential was to fight for wins.”

Bagnaia’s ongoing struggles have also led to concerns about the relationship he has with Ducati, with tensions flaring are various points recently.

But the Italian backs the brand and says he hopes to be a lifer at Ducati, having joined the marque in 2019.

“I never doubted Ducati because I think my career will start and finish in Ducati,” he added.

“It’s too early to think about next year. If I’m ok with my bike I can fight for it, but if not I will try to do what I always did, which is pushing and try to set everything in a good way.”