Francesco Bagnaia “enjoyed” new Ducati, “quite sure” it will be competitive

After last year’s misery, Francesco Bagnaia is keeping a lid on his expectations for MotoGP 2026.

But while the former double champion is careful not to over-promise, he aims to at least make life "more hard" for reigning champion and team-mate Marc Marquez.

Bagnaia also heads into next week’s official Sepang test encouraged by the feeling and performance of the latest Ducati GP26 components he sampled at November’s post-season outing at Valencia.

“The prototype I tried in Valencia was good. I enjoyed the day,” Francesco Bagnaia said during the recent Ducati MotoGP team launch.

“Luckily, we had the race two days before. I was struggling during the weekend, and in the Tuesday test I was feeling better and also the pace was improving.

“So I enjoyed the bike. The pace was competitive. I don't think the engineers have changed a lot, they just improved some areas where I was struggling during the season.

“But I cannot enter into details because I don't know them, but I'm quite sure the new bike will be competitive.”

The Italian took four race wins last year but rarely felt fully comfortable on the GP25 with which Marquez was able to dominate.

Most frustratingly, Bagnaia and Ducati were unable to make linear progress in solving the issues.

Instead, he suffered some of his worst weekends in the closing rounds, failing to score in ten of the final 14 races - but winning three of the other four.

“I would just like to fight more in the championship, not like last year, and have the potential to make the life of Marc more hard, not like last year,” he said.

“Many riders are fast, so it will be important to be competitive right from the start, fight with them and try to regain what I lost last year.”

Bagnaia will take part in some Superbike training at Mandalika alongside his fellow VR46 Academy riders before heading to Sepang for the official MotoGP test from February 3–5.