One of the biggest frustrations for Francesco Bagnaia during the 2025 MotoGP season was his inability to reach the pace he had shown the year before. When comparing his race times, many of his 2024 performances would have been enough to fight for victories in 2025, yet he was unable to replicate them.
Across the season, this issue became a consistent trend. Not every race could be fairly compared due to calendar changes, weather disruptions, restarts, or altered race distances. Several circuits were also absent from the 2024 schedule, while others were excluded if Bagnaia failed to finish in either year.
Using only races that met strict comparison criteria, 18 events were analysed. Bagnaia was faster than his 2024 pace in just four of them. Two improvements came at Motegi, where he won both the Sprint and the Grand Prix. The other gains were seen in the Aragon Sprint and the COTA Sprint, both influenced by differing track conditions or race context.
In the remaining 14 comparable races, Bagnaia was slower on the Ducati GP25 than he had been on the GP24 at the same circuits. One of the most extreme examples came at Mandalika, where he started 16th and finished the Sprint 25 seconds slower than his 2024 race-winning time.
Mugello, usually one of Bagnaia’s strongest tracks, proved especially frustrating. He finished fourth and was over 22 seconds slower than his 2024 winning pace, yet only just over five seconds behind race winner Marc Marquez. This meant Marquez won the 2025 race despite being significantly slower than Bagnaia had been at the same venue the year before.
At Phillip Island, Bagnaia again struggled to match his previous pace, while race winner Marco Bezzecchi went noticeably faster than the 2024 benchmark set by Jorge Martin.
A broader comparison of all race-winning times, regardless of Bagnaia’s finishing position, looked at 28 races. Of these, 13 were faster in 2025, while 15 were won with slower times than in 2024. It is worth noting that riders with a comfortable lead, as Marc Marquez often had, did not need to push to the absolute limit.
Crucially, 12 of those 15 unbeaten 2024 race times were set on a Ducati GP24. Seven belonged to Bagnaia himself, three to Enea Bastianini, and two to then world champion Jorge Martin. On paper, this suggests Bagnaia could have claimed several more Sprint and Grand Prix victories in 2025 if he had simply been able to repeat his 2024 race pace.
