Francesco Bagnaia arrived in MotoGP with a Ducati contract and crowned with a Moto2 title. Enough to be sure of yourself and especially since during an off-season test in Sepang, he made sparks. Alas, everything turned sour and the academician VR46 fell all the more because he fell in one season more often than in three years. However, the last races of 2019 made him see the light at the end of the tunnel, notably with a fourth place in Australia. But there is still a lot more to do…
Francesco "Pecco" Bagnaia came to the MotoGP World Championship as Moto2 World Champion. In fact, it is a completely different result than 54 points scored, a fifteenth place overall which identifies him as the penultimate of the rookies which he expected at the time of the accounts. And yet… “ It wasn't the best season and certainly not what I expected » admits the Pramac Ducati rider without shame. “ I thought it might be possible to be faster. But it's like that »
« I'm trying to learn and I think I've learned the most in the last five races. We have also taken a step forward. » He explains the reasons for this improvement as follows: “ after Aragón we took a path and tried to change my riding style decisively. Not like since the beginning of the year, a little here and a little there », added the GP19 driver. “ We really changed everything and I tried to adapt to this bike as best as I could, so braking really hard and not relying on the speed in the corners, but still maintaining it. Because it's always an advantage to be a driver who maintains good speed in the corners. »
« That's probably why I was fast in Australia. We took the big step to be stronger on the brakes. The data confirms that I am at the same level as the other drivers, sometimes a little better » insists Pecco with relief. “ The fact that we are still lacking speed is due to factors where me or the bike reaches the limit. We will probably solve some of them with the new bike », Hopes the Italian who will drive a GP20 model during the next campaign.
The 22-year-old pilot, however, does not hide the reality: “ the result is not positive, in particular because of the numerous falls, also in the race... Four in a row during the first half of the season. If you fall so often, you can't learn much. We surely need to be more consistent next year, always in the top 10. That's my goal for the coming season »
Australia will have been the best memory of a complicated journey: “ I really needed a race like this, in the leading group, in the fight for the podium. It was very good for my morale and my team ". What was the biggest difficulty? “ Figuring out the front tire was one of the hardest things " Pecco said. “ The Michelin tire is very good, but you have to understand it first. From 2011 to 2018 I rode with Dunlop and the front feeling is more or less the same in Moto2 and Moto3. It's different in MotoGP with Michelin. I struggled with this. This is one of the most important steps I need to take: understanding the front end better and making fewer mistakes. »
bagnaia hopes that the new Ducati will also help him in 2020: “ above all, I hope to get on the new bike and feel that some of the problems I had in 2019 have been sorted out a little. This is my greatest wish. It's definitely a more competitive bike and a lot of things will be different that will help me be faster » ends on Speedweek the teammate of Jack Miller.
