Breakthrough or false dawn? Francesco Bagnaia finds early confidence on 2026 Ducati

Early gains in a key weak area suggest Ducati may have addressed Bagnaia’s biggest concern

Francesco Bagnaia is becoming increasingly comfortable on Ducati’s 2026 MotoGP bike following the second day of pre-season testing at Sepang.

Having already been encouraged by an initial run on a prototype version of the GP26 in November, Bagnaia has largely been able to confirm those positive impressions in Malaysia this week.

As soon as he jumped on the bike on Tuesday after the winter break, the Italian felt more at ease than he had for much of his difficult 2025 campaign.

The biggest improvement has come in braking, the very area where Bagnaia lost ground throughout 2025.

While it’s too early for the two-time MotoGP champion to draw conclusions, the early running does put him on a much stronger footing heading into the third and final day of the Sepang test.

“In the winter, [I was] praying that things would go well, and honestly it went well,” he said on Tuesday. “From the start of the day, I literally enjoyed riding a lot today. As soon as I started, I understood quickly that my feeling was better in terms of braking entry.

“In the braking entry, I was feeling that the bike was stopping and not pushing. This is something that I was asking a lot last year. For that, I have to say thanks a lot to Ducati for helping me to find it [the feeling].

“Maybe it's the track, because I was also quite competitive here last year, but then I was struggling in some areas last year and today that wasn’t a problem. This is a good start.”

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

While the Wednesday afternoon session was effectively washed out, Bagnaia was still able to complete a part of his programme to back up his initial findings from the test.

Crucially, he finished eighth on the timesheets, four tenths down on pacesetter Joan Mir, despite carrying a heavy fuel load.

“Yesterday was a relief day. Today was a bit unlucky with the condition and the situation with the rain in the afternoon,” he summed up.

“This morning we also had some issues with the new parts, but it's part of the process during the test.

“But the lap time we did was very fast, considering the race set-up, and I’m quite confident with the things we tested.”

On Tuesday, Bagnaia evaluated a new fairing and compared its behaviour on both worn and fresh tyres.

His team-mate Marc Marquez carried out all Ducati's aero work on Wednesday, but Bagnaia will try more new components on the final day of the Sepang test.

He had already saved an extra set of soft tyres, which should help him extract the full performance of the bike on low fuel. A race simulation could also be on the cards, if the schedule allows, following the weather disruptions.

For now, however, Bagnaia underlined that the most important step has come under braking.

“Not so surprising, because I think that [braking] being better than last year was important for me, and as soon as I started I felt that they improved that area [braking].

“As soon as I started yesterday in the first lap, I understood that the bike was working much better for me in braking entry. And today I can confirm the same.”