MotoGPValentin Khorounzhiy
24 Mar 2026 — 2 min read
Two-time MotoGP champion Pecco Bagnaia is facing another campaign that is spiralling out of control, with the Brazilian Grand Prix underlining a poor start to his 2026.
Since his double win at Motegi at the end of last year, Bagnaia has scored a mortifying 24 points across seven rounds - a return of 3.4 points per round.
Every other Ducati regular has scored more, and Marc Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio put up more points at Goiania last weekend alone.
This, of course, is an exaggeration in terms of the competitive picture. But it is clearly true that, after a gently promising pre-season, Bagnaia has fallen into his 2025 performance patterns across both the Thai GP and the Brazilian GP weekends.
At the first of those, he just wasn't quick enough at any stage. At the second, he showed glimpses of good performance that just didn't translate in the relevant stages - his weekend ultimately kneecapped by a crash in the second qualifying segment.
"I was trying to survive during the race - but I crashed the same," said a dejected Bagnaia after crashing out from 11th on Sunday.
"I maybe didn't manage to understand well the condition. I was struggling a lot to remain on my bike. The grip was very low - and like I said, I didn't manage to understand the conditions well, and I crashed, lost the front."
Again, falling into the pack in a race scenario seemed to fundamentally neuter Bagnaia in a way that it doesn't his Ducati peers, all of whom - even the still-injured Fermin Aldeguer - showed a propensity for making their way forward this weekend.
"From the start of the season - testing, and here, apart from the races, I was always having a good feeling. I need to understand more and I need to improve myself," said Bagnaia.
"FP2 I was in the front [fourth place], this morning I was in the front [fourth place in the Sunday warm-up]. I just did a mistake in qualifying, but the pace was good.
"Strange that then in the race I was struggling like this yesterday, like this today. I just need to improve."
Bagnaia suggested he could now follow other bikes closer than last year, but a comfort and adaptability limitation clearly remains when he's having to take care of the front tyre temperature and give chase.
And he felt that it was "more or less" akin to what he was already suffering from last year, with the 2025-spec Ducati that he could almost never - save for a weekend or two - get to work on corner entry like he wanted to.
"Looks that we are struggling quite a lot to stop the bike, and have a normal corner speed. And then also the rear grip, it's not very constant.
"During the [practice] sessions, yes, I feel much better [with the new bike]. In the races, no."
MotoGP heads to the Circuit of the Americas next, a track where Bagnaia took a Marquez crash-assisted victory last year.
This return - 24 points in seven rounds - is not his real level, and he will have good weekends this season - though at 46 points off the championship lead any lofty aspirations may be a lost cause already.
And the days in which he was able to separate himself from the fellow Ducati riders appear long gone. Currently, Bagnaia is doing nothing to make his employer regret moving so soon to replace him for 2027.