Davide Tardozzi admits MotoGP season began as "a nightmare"

Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi has described the opening races of the 2026 MotoGP season as a “nightmare”

Tardozzi believed Ducati was in for “a nice year” following the Sepang pre-season test, where five Desmosedicis finished inside the top six.

That included reigning champion Marc Marquez, who was returning to action for the first time since the shoulder injuries suffered at Mandalika last season.

However, Aprilia made what Tardozzi called a “huge step” between Sepang and the final test at Buriram, while Marquez's recovery stalled due to an undiagnosed compressed radial nerve in his right arm.

Aprilia won the opening three grands prix with Marco Bezzecchi and added a Sprint victory with Jorge Martin, while Ducati reached the European rounds with only a single Sprint success.

"A nightmare"

“Honestly, yes,” Tardozzi replied when asked if he had been surprised by Aprilia's early-season strength.

“Because after Sepang, I was really confident that it should be a nice year for us. Not a nightmare like it's been in the first couple of races.

“But we have to clap our hands because they [Aprilia] did a huge step in between Sepang and Thailand, and chapeau.

“But then, we started to work, Gigi did a good job with our engineers, and I think that we recovered a bit of the gap.

“Not enough yet, to me, but having the riders we have, I think that we closed a bit more of the gap.”

Ducati eventually broke through for its first grand prix victory of the season with Alex Marquez at Jerez, before Fabio di Giannantonio added a second win at Catalunya.

Pecco Bagnaia finally gave the factory team its first Sunday podium in Catalunya, an event team-mate Marc Marquez missed after surgery on the nerve issue.

The nine time champion returned modestly with seventh place at Mugello before dominating Balaton Park with pole position and victories in both races.

Despite those results, Tardozzi stressed that the Spaniard remains far from full fitness.

Marc Marquez recovery: "One month, maybe two"

“I still think that it was very difficult for him. The pole position, win, win, doesn't mean that he is 100%. He is not 100%,” Tardozzi said of Marquez's condition.

“So, our target is that he recovers from his injury in the perfect way, and this will take at least one more month, and maybe even two.”

Marquez’s perfect weekend score was combined with a nightmare grand prix for the factory Aprilia team.

Martin triggered a first-corner accident that eliminated team-mate Bezzecchi as well as Ducati's leading rider in the championship, di Giannantonio.

The incident allowed Marquez to cut 30 points from Bezzecchi's championship lead, although he remains 72 points behind.

“It's a very important weekend, because we recovered a lot of points, but we absolutely know that our opponents are very strong,” Tardozzi said.

“Today they've been really, really unlucky. And honestly, I'm so sorry for Marco and Diggia and the other guys, because we gained points, but we know that these guys should have fought for the podium.

“But anyway, that's racing.

“We had bad luck in the beginning of the season. We know that 44 races, can have different results and different situations during each weekend. And we'll see."