The 2025 season is turning into a nightmare, and internal relations are deteriorating at Ducati to the point that a divorce between the brand and Pecco Bagnaia is looming, according to some sources close to Borgo Panigale.
Francesco Pecco Bagnaia is going through the most tense period of his career with DucatiThe double world champion is at his wit's end: the Desmosedici GP25 has turned into a technical labyrinth from which no one, neither he nor the engineers, can find a way out.
Since the beginning of the year, bagnaia couldn't get a feel for the bike, despite the manufacturer's efforts to adapt the GP25 to his riding style. Exasperated, he gave the team an ultimatum: get components from the GP24, the bike on which he had won eleven times last season.
He was finally able to test this mixture of parts at Misano before using them at Motegi — and there, a miracle: sprint + race double, his first success of this kind in 2025. We then believed in renewal.
But a week later, at Mandalika, everything collapsed: fall in the race, then abandonment at Phillip Island after starting from the back of the grid. bagnaia mentions a "complicated" problem with braking and corner entry, unable to turn the motorcycle properly.
A deleterious climate in Borgo Panigale
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the situation between bagnaia et Ducati has become "indecipherable." The factory does not understand the exact nature of the problem, and bagnaia is demoralized.
He blames Ducati a "reactive" development, without a clear direction, which makes analysis work impossible. In the garage, faces close: the atmosphere is glacial.
A poisonous climate in Borgo Panigale: the relationship between Bagnaia and Dall'Igna is said to be "difficult and compromised"
Tensions with Luigi Dall'Igna, the general manager of Ducati Corse, are getting worse. The Italian newspaper speaks of a relationship that is now "difficult and compromised." bagnaia, oscillating between public criticism and clumsy apologies, loses the confidence of the management team.
ducatI would have fixed at bagnaia a deadline to prove he deserves an extension beyond 2026. The last two races without points have caused his internal rating to plummet.
Worse: at the moment when Marc Marquez strings together performances and establishes itself as the absolute reference, Ducati sees his own champion sinking into doubt.
Bagnaia himself acknowledged the comparison after the Australian sprint: “ If Marc was here, he would probably be on the podium…but I can’t stop the motorcycle from moving »
A heavy confession: he devotes Marquez as a benchmark and confirms that the GP25 is beyond his control.
The timing is disastrous for Ducati : As 2026 approaches, all factory contracts expire, and the driver market promises to be explosive. Marquez, having become dominant again, now dictates the conditions.
Since the pandemic, the Ducati factory has imposed a strict wage policy, refusing to accept huge contracts... but the current situation could well force it to revise everything so as not to lose the man who attracts sponsors and results.
bagnaia no longer understands his bike and doubts Ducati. Relations with Dall'Igna are freezing. Ducati gives him a reprieve until 2026. Marquez becomes the brand's number 1 strategic asset...
Faced with this tense situation and the risk of losing its reference pilot, the priority of Ducati should it be to give in to the demands of bagnaia and give him the resources he needs to focus on GP26, or cut short the tensions and formalize the search for a new top driver for 2026 in order to stabilize the development of GP27?
