Bagnaia: "If I will not be competitive here we can say there's a problem" at Italian GP
Francesco Bagnaia knows he must put in a strong showing at his home Italian GP given his impressive record at Mugello
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Francesco Bagnaia has labelled the Italian Grand Prix weekend as make or break for his MotoGP campaign in 2025.
The two-time MotoGP world champion outlined that if he doesn't have the pace around the Mugello circuit this weekend, then he and Ducati clearly have a deeper issue than he and the team thought.
Aragon looked very bleak for Bagnaia all weekend with only a late increase in brake disc size on Sunday improving his confidence on the factory Ducati machine.
That put him on the pace in the main race where he managed to finish third, but Bagnaia outlined how important it is to keep that momentum going into this weekend.
"It will be very important to be competitive because if I will not be competitive here we can say there's a problem," said Bagnaia. "So I will try to fight.
"I know that I'm not in a situation where I can imagine winning both races because we know how strong Marc [Marquez] is this season, and we know how strong Alex [Marquez] is this season.
"It will be important to restart from Sunday in Aragon and try to implement our pace session by session."
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Photo by: Dorna
Bagnaia also discussed how much he is looking forward to racing in front of his home crowd as he aims to carry forward his Aragon speed.
"It's great to be here in this moment of the season," said Bagnaia.
"In Aragon, it's true that in the race on Sunday, I was competitive but my feeling is that it's not depending on what we did in Aragon so let's if I can have a good feeling and a good setup from the start of the weekend.
"I know how important it is to get a good result here and we will try our maximum. I'm really looking forward to starting this race weekend, I love racing here, to look around and see all the fans and all the crowd. It's magic, like always the Mugello GP.
"I'll try to do my maximum, to keep the pace of Marc who is normally the strongest one so I will try to at least fight for the win."
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