DI GIANNANTONIO SAYS DUCATI’S AUSTRIA BRAKE ISSUES ARE NOTHING NEW AFTER MARQUEZ PROBLEM

Ducati’s Austrian Grand Prix weekend sparked a debate inside the team after Marc Marquez was limited to fifth place at the Red Bull Ring, with Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi pointing to a clear technical culprit: a brake problem that surfaced during Sunday’s race. Marquez had arrived in Austria leading the 2026 riders’ standings for the first time, after his double at Misano had brought him level on points with Aprilia’s Jorge Martin. However, Martin pulled away again in Austria, extending his advantage to 12 points with 306 to Marquez’s 294.

Tardozzi said Ducati must “analyse” why Marquez suffered an “obvious problem” that proved decisive. He described the issue as the most serious moment of the race, explaining that Marquez went straight into Turn 1 and then struggled for a few laps. Tardozzi also stressed that the team’s engineers—led by Luigi Dall’Igna—will work to understand what caused the malfunction. “Unfortunately, Marc had a problem, the most serious one when he went straight into Turn 1. Then he had some difficulties for a few laps, but now Gigi and the engineers will clearly analyse the reasons why it happened,” Tardozzi said to Sky Sports Italy. “But yes, there was a problem with the brakes, and now we’ll look into it. This is different in our opinion, but it’s happened before. Pecco has complained a couple of times. I don’t know about the other Ducati riders now, but today it was a pretty obvious problem.”

The Austrian race also followed a chaotic Saturday Sprint in which Marquez and Martin were both in the spotlight. At times it looked as though Marquez might build an advantage over Martin after an early incident in the Sprint, but Martin ultimately won the Sprint after Pedro Acosta crashed late. Martin had been forced to recover after dropping to eighth on Lap 1, following contact that sent him off the road at Turn 2A. In Sunday’s Grand Prix, Acosta then went on to score KTM’s debut MotoGP win in Austria, while Martin and Marco Bezzecchi ensured both Aprilias were on the podium. Ai Ogura finished fourth for Trackhouse.

Marquez rejected the idea that Ducati’s struggles were linked to tyre characteristics, specifically claims that the issue came from Michelin’s harder rear carcass. The French manufacturer had offered a heat-treated rear tyre that, according to the report, tends to suit the Aprilia RS-GP more than Ducati’s GP26. Instead, Marquez’s camp pointed back to brakes as the real problem.

Tardozzi acknowledged that brake complaints are not new for Ducati, saying Francesco Bagnaia has previously “complained” about similar issues. Yet he also indicated that Ducati still needs to determine why the problem occurred in Austria.

That position was challenged by Fabio Di Giannantonio, who offered a different perspective on whether Ducati’s brake difficulties are unusual. Di Giannantonio said the situation is “nothing new,” noting that he has personally experienced brake problems across his five years on Ducati. He referenced Misano, where he finished seventh in the San Marino Grand Prix, and he also pointed to the variety of brake failures he has encountered—ranging from a lever that goes soft to one that goes hard, and even cases where it “stop[s] working altogether.”

Di Giannantonio’s comments, relayed via Motorsport.com’s Spanish edition, also framed the broader context of Ducati’s setbacks. “It’s true that we’ve had a lot of setbacks that have made us suffer,” he said. “We’ve competed in three races with only one bike, and we had brake problems at Misano. So, when these things happen, it always seems like everything is bleak. But in reality, what’s happening is that we’re having a hard time for many reasons that, let’s say, are beyond our control.”

He added that the pattern of brake issues has been present for years: “I’ve been with Ducati for five years and these things happen. They happen, it’s nothing new. We’ve always had these little issues with the brakes, which can be of different types.” Di Giannantonio said he had difficulties with the brakes all weekend but that both races still went well for him. He concluded by listing the different symptoms he has seen: “You might experience that [the lever becomes soft], or the lever might get stiff, like what happened to me in Misano, or it might stop working altogether, like what happened to Pecco in a couple of races.”

With Ducati now set to investigate the specific cause of Marquez’s Austria brake problem, the weekend’s key takeaway is that the team’s leadership sees a need for deeper diagnosis, while Di Giannantonio argues the underlying brake troubles are part of a longer-running Ducati story rather than a one-off anomaly.