MotoGP legend believes Pecco Bagnaia must follow “long road to get results”

One-time MotoGP world champion Kevin Schwantz believes Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia will “have to try everything himself” and not rely on Marc Marquez’s data to be competitive in 2026.

Double MotoGP champion Pecco Bagnaia was expected to be Marc Marquez’s closest championship rival in 2025.

But the Italian struggled from the off for front-end confidence on the GP25, with Bagnaia scoring just two grand prix wins and finishing 257 points adrift in fifth in the standings.

Troublingly, Bagnaia’s woes seemed impossible to fix for Ducati, with the Italian’s form wildly unpredictable from weekend to weekend.

Many have suggested that Bagnaia suffered mentally due to being Marquez’s team-mate in 2025, which is something both the Italian and Ducati have repeatedly refuted.

But Schwantz believes his struggles coming as Marquez dominated certainly played a part, while admitting that Bagnaia has a “long road” to follow to get back to where he needs to be.

“I think it's a combination of everything,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport at EICMA.

“The competition is so close that between being at the front and being at the back of the group, it's often just a matter of a second.

“So you can't afford to be too far behind. If you let these things go to your head, like seeing your team-mate always in the top three or top five, it's easy to get distracted and not be able to focus on what you need and what you want from the bike.

“We know how strong Pecco can be, we saw it in Japan too: fastest in qualifying, winner of the sprint race and then also the long race.

“We know he has that kind of quality. Maybe, on that occasion, Marquez was just racing for the championship, maybe he didn't push 100% to score just the points he needed to win the title, but Pecco just has to get back to focusing only on what he wants and what he needs.

“It’s going to be hard work: he won't be able to ask [the team] ‘What are they using?' or 'Why is he going faster than me?', since what works for Marc doesn't necessarily work for him.

“So he'll have to try everything himself. It seems like a long road to get results, but I think at that level it's the only way to do it.”

Bagnaia ended the Valencia test last month pleased with his feelings on the bike rode.

Ducati announced recently that it will stage its official team launch for 2026 in Italy on 19 January.