Why Fabio di Giannantonio couldn’t just “copy” Marc Marquez

It’s a familiar question in MotoGP: when one rider is winning on the same bike, why don’t the others simply copy their set-up?

In 2025, it was a question frequently aimed at Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio di Giannantonio as they chased consistency and front-end feeling on a Ducati GP25 that dominated the championship in the hands of Marc Marquez.

di Giannantonio explained that while the idea sounds logical, it doesn’t reflect reality.

“The problem is that every rider works, looks for and rides in different ways,” explained the VR46 rider, whose first season on factory-spec machinery brought nine podiums and sixth in the world championship, but no victories.

“Believe me, I'm studying other riders and trying to improve where riders are better than me. But I can never achieve their exact way of working or riding.

“You can copy the setup, but then it's a completely different story of riding on that setup.”

di Giannantonio was blunt about what would happen if he tried to mirror Marquez exactly.

“If I copy Marc's setup, I'll be last, 100%,” he said. “It's about what you're asking from the bike, what you're asking from the team, what you need to feel good, to push and trust the bike, to go fast.”

Rather than a quick fix, Diggia described performance as a multi-pronged process.

“It's not easy. It's not about, ‘Ah, Pecco should ride better or should not touch anything’. It's not always like this.”

He was also keen to "defend" Bagnaia.

“I want to defend a little bit the rider, Pecco… sometimes it's not about him. Maybe they are just looking for the wrong thing. That's it. 

"It's different. But Pecco, for sure, didn't lose the skills to ride.”

Bagnaia’s nightmare end to the season was punctuated by a perfect weekend at Motegi and a sprint win at Sepang, leaving the former double world champion fifth in the final MotoGP standings.