The whole paddock knows the sometimes exuberant reactions of Davide Tardozzi in the Ducati box, but after the arrival of the MotoGP Grand Prix of Aragon, it is just a huge relief that characterizes the team manager of Borgo Panigale after the 3rd place of Francis Bagnaia.
The perfect weekend of Marc Márquez, everyone was expecting it a little, but the third place acquired by Francis Bagnaia in the long race, after having shown a level of competitiveness unrelated to the Sprint of Saturday which ended pitifully 12th at 14 seconds, brings a great breath of optimism to the entire Italian team: Finally, after having suffered since the beginning of the year from the transition from the GP 24 to the GP 24.5, Pecco Bagnaia regains confidence with its front end and is getting closer to its competitiveness, demonstrated many times over!
On the official website MotoGP.com, in the last episode of " After the flag » Davide Tardozzi shares his point of view and provides some explanations…
“Marc had an incredible weekend, and on the other hand, we are really happy for Pecco. It seems he is back, and that makes us very happy, because the engineers have been working for several races to give him that feeling at the front again. And it seems that it has finally paid off. We will see tomorrow if we can improve that feeling even further, because we want to have the best possible technical package for Mugello next week.”
What changes have been made to Desmosedici number 93?
“Just a few things up front. I don't want to go into detail about it, maybe Pecco will. But in any case, it was something we hadn't thought about before. And following a discussion yesterday with his race engineer, Christian Gabarrini, he had an idea… and it worked. We'll see tomorrow how to improve this area further.”
As Mugello approaches, Ducati's home race and one of Francesco Bagnaia's favorite circuits, optimism is restored...
“That’s true. We were tired of hearing the same things from Pecco all the time—not because we didn’t believe him, but because we couldn’t find a solution to his problem. And today, finally, he was… Woof, relaxed. We found something. What we’ve been looking for since Jerez, Le Mans, Silverstone… And finally, here, we’ve put our finger on it. Now we need to improve this area even more, and I think we'll have a fantastic Pecco at Mugello »
For his part, the person concerned is not to be outdone, and even provides some additional explanations.
“Today I feel like I won!” (laughs) And yet, it's "only" a third place, but it's a fantastic result for me, and also for the whole team. They're working very hard to try to understand my situation, but it's also complicated for them. For example, this morning, we decided to change a tiny detail, and it changed everything for me. I was able to brake harder, without the wheel locking up.
Until yesterday, I had to use all my strength to slow down the bike, but it wouldn't decelerate and I was blocking everywhere. Today we changed something about the brake discs., and from the morning, I was able to brake harder when needed, and brake less hard when I felt the front was going to lock up.
So
It was a huge step forward for meA small detail that gave me a little more confidence, and allowed me to be more competitive lap after lap. Every lap gave me a little more. So I'm happy, and It was really important to have a result like that to approach Mugello believing in a victory »
“Honestly, maybe something wasn't working yesterday. Because what happened to me was very strange. I was on the ground everywhere, I was losing the front. Honestly, it was very difficult to be competitive yesterday. I tried, but the bike locked the front in every corner, it was really complicated. Today, from the morning, I felt much better. Maybe the disc helped, but it wasn't only that. I was able to force the corner entries, and this time, I had the feeling that the tire was there, that it was holding, and that I wasn't losing it. It was a huge relief for me. »
« I know Marc is doing something else right now. He's much faster. It was important to stay realistic, not to think we were going to recover everything in one day. It was impossible. The most important thing was to restart with our feet on the ground, to work, to understand. That's what I did today. I saw that Marc and Alex were very strong, I just tried to follow them everywhere. And on the last lap, we were very fast. But it wasn't just important for me. It was also essential for the team, and also before Mugello, it was super important. »
« I do not know… To fight for a victory against a Marc like that, my confidence must be total.. But we'll see. I know thatAt Mugello, I have always been super competitive since my first season in MotoGP.Tomorrow we will test during the trials, try to take another step to regain confidence and believe in a victory. And I will try to do the maximum. »
2025 MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix Results:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
MotoGP Aragon Francesco Bagnaia MotoGP Aragon Francesco Bagnaia MotoGP Aragon Francesco Bagnaia
