BAGNAIA SAYS HE IS RIDING “VERY DEFENSIVE” AT MISANO AS CONFIDENCE CRISIS CONTINUES

Francesco Bagnaia admitted that he is riding “very defensive” at Misano as his confidence crisis continues, describing a situation where pushing harder immediately makes him feel like he will crash.

The Ducati rider’s struggles have been a recurring theme in 2026, with Bagnaia saying the team is working hard to identify what is wrong but that it still appears “impossible to understand why.” He pointed to clear differences in the data compared with other Ducati riders, explaining that while he is braking much harder than the rest, the bike is not accelerating in the way it should. “It’s extremely clear on the data the difference between me and all the other Ducatis, because I’m braking much harder than the rest but the bike is not accelerating,” Bagnaia said after Practice at Misano. He added that he is paying close attention to throttle use, yet he believes he is still the one accelerating less: “I’m paying a lot of attention to acceleration with the throttle but I’m the one that is accelerating less.”

Bagnaia said the problem is not only frustrating but also dangerous to manage. “I’m riding the bike in a very defensive way because as soon as I try to do a little bit more I crash,” he explained. He also described how the risk has been present even when he is not attempting to attack: “For me today I was close to crash seven times in the Practice and that was very slow. Even in the slow laps I was almost crashing so this is strange and we need to understand why.”

He stressed that the approach of repeatedly flirting with crashes is not what he wants as a way to solve the issue. “Crashing all the corners is not the way I want to figure out the situation,” Bagnaia said.

The Misano weekend has reflected the wider difficulties. Bagnaia was 18th in FP1 and 19th in Practice on Friday. While the circuit has been a positive place for him in the past—he was on the podium in 2020 and won twice in 2021 and 2022—this year he has struggled to find the confidence needed to ride at full speed.

Bagnaia also compared his situation to Alex Marquez, noting that since last year, when his confidence began to deteriorate, he has often felt his riding style is closest to the Spaniard. At Misano, he said Marquez—who was third-fastest in Practice—can stop the bike more effectively than he can. “He’s the one that makes more difference on that because he’s the one that is using less pressure but he decelerates a lot,” Bagnaia said, adding that his own braking and deceleration do not translate into the same performance. “I’m using like the double but the bike is not stopping, so very difficult.”

The rider’s comments also suggested the problem is affecting more than just his personal pace. “Right now it’s also difficult for [the team],” Bagnaia said. He told the team to “try to think out of what we already tested,” arguing that the issues have been “always the same” since the start of the season. However, he believes the situation has worsened recently: “In the last three GPs it was much worse so maybe we are losing something around and it’s hiding quite well.”

With Misano’s practice sessions leaving him close to multiple crashes and his pace far from where he expects to be, Bagnaia’s immediate priority is clear: regain the ability to push without triggering the feeling that he will crash, while the team continues searching for the underlying cause of the performance gap.