Valentino Rossi defends Bagnaia and jabs at Ducati: "I’d like them to put in the same effort as Pecco"

Bagnaia makes a good comeback in the Sprint, Rossi scolds Ducati: the statements from Barcelona.

After a 2025 below expectations, Francesco Bagnaia approached 2026 with a strong desire for redemption. But even with the Ducati Desmosedici GP26 he has encountered difficulties that are not allowing him to perform at the desired level. After a promising weekend at Le Mans, he struggled in Barcelona as early as Friday, failed to reach Q2, and had to start from the thirteenth spot on the grid. In the Sprint he climbed back to sixth, finishing just behind Johann Zarco’s LCR Honda. A good sign of progress, even if his ambition is to always be on the podium. In any case, today’s performance is encouraging ahead of Sunday’s long race, where managing the tires well will be crucial.

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Speaking to Sky Sport MotoGP, Pecco referred to 2025 and the commitment he’s putting into 2026 to have a satisfying championship: "Last year I got the attitude, the approach, wrong. I thought I was giving everything, but this year I’m really giving everything and a bit more. I’m trying in everything I do. We started off struggling, because this bike needs to be understood; it seems we don’t have a good base setup that works extremely well everywhere. Diggia has found it; in every situation he’s up front, while we’re struggling a bit more. Today we managed to take another step forward and that’s important, because tire wear is always demanding here and we were able to finish the sprint with a good pace. I think our potential is higher than this and we can get back to winning again."

Bagnaia explains that he’s encountering difficulties with a new tire, while with a used tire he’s decidedly better and can fight more with the other riders: "A constant this weekend is that with used tires I can be quite fast; I don’t drop off as much as the others. What I’m missing is the initial grip; the others do lap times like 39.2 in the first laps and it’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I can’t. When I get on the gas, I’m missing that initial push; I can’t perform as I’d like. There are three corners where I lose everything: 5, 9, 14. We’re working to improve; we’ve already managed with corners 3 and 4. We’re on the right path, we need to keep going like this."

The Ducati Lenovo team rider feels he has the potential to do a good long race in Catalunya, even though starting from the fifth row is never easy: "My strong point is that I can stress the front tire less and get the bike turning well. That helps a lot on this track. Rear tire wear goes hand in hand with how hard you push, especially at the start. If I can stay calm in the first laps, obviously while overtaking, I think we can be fast in the second half of the race. I don’t know if it will be enough for a top 5, but the goal is to come up through the field and keep doing the work we’re doing. Sooner or later it will come. At Le Mans the start was the factor that didn’t allow me to be up front right away. But we’re working hard and we’ll be back there."

Valentino Rossi is also in Barcelona, mainly to follow the Pertamina Enduro VR46 team and the other riders from his Academy. As a guest in the Sky Sport MotoGP studio, he spoke about Bagnaia’s situation and also sent a clear message to Ducati: "Pecco has a very good attitude this year. I see him often because we often train together. He’s really giving his all and wants to try to get back to winning with Ducati. The attitude is the right one and the results show it, because at Le Mans he had an amazing weekend, took pole position and could have won. He finished second in the Sprint and then on Sunday he crashed due to a brake problem. The season is still long and Pecco probably won’t be racing with Ducati next season, but I would also like Ducati to commit as much as he does to try to get back to the front".

It seems that Rossi doesn’t see Ducati sufficiently committed to supporting Bagnaia’s return to victory, also in light of what happened in 2025: "Like in a marriage where there was a lot of love, when bad things happen like last year, when there were no results and there were some statements from Pecco that... I see that tempers have cooled a lot. But Pecco is trying and I hope Ducati tries too, because the potential to get back to winning is there."

Valentino’s words certainly make noise, also considering that his VR46 team is partnered with Ducati itself. Instead of using more “political” language, he preferred to be direct and scold the Borgo Panigale squad. We’ll see if there will be a response from someone in red.