DOVIZIOSO WORRIED BY BAGNAIA’S STRUGGLES

Andrea Dovizioso says Pecco Bagnaia’s recent struggles have become worrying to watch, describing the Ducati rider as visibly distressed and urging caution when discussing what may be behind his difficulties.

“His behaviour and what he says scares me a little,” Dovizioso said on a podcast published on his YouTube channel. “I just hope he doesn’t experience racing like that, because I can see in his eyes that he’s really suffering.”

Dovizioso, a 15-time MotoGP race winner, spent eight seasons with Ducati and helped develop the team’s bike into a race-winning machine. He fought Marc Marquez for the 2017 championship before leaving the factory squad at the end of 2020. Bagnaia took his place and went on to win world titles in 2022 and 2023.

Bagnaia’s fortunes have since changed sharply. After narrowly missing a third title in 2024, his form fell away. He managed one victory in 2025 while struggling to find front-end confidence on the GP25. In 2026, the problem has been a lack of rear grip that other Ducati riders have not experienced; his best results so far have been several third places. He is due to leave Ducati for Aprilia at the end of the year.

Dovizioso said he could not explain the cause from the outside. “I wish I could read the minds of the engineers and Pecco to better understand the situation. But that’s not possible, so we have to stay out of it.”

Former Jorge Lorenzo crew chief Ramon Forcada has said Ducati tried “unconventional things” to help Bagnaia, without finding a solution. Dovizioso, however, avoided speculating about the technical or personal factors involved, saying the subject was sensitive and that he did not want to make a difficult period worse for the rider.

“It’s a truly serious situation,” he said. “If we were to discuss it, we’d be touching on important, personal and sensitive issues. I don’t want to further aggravate or comment on the situation of a rider who is already going through such a difficult time.”

Dovizioso added that, across his years in the championship, he had never encountered a comparable case. “In all these years that I have lived the MotoGP World Championship, I have never experienced or seen, neither in myself nor in other riders, a situation comparable to the one Pecco is going through.”