Enea Bastianini admits he is unable to understand why the soft rear tyre continues to cause him problems on his KTM MotoGP bike, following a frustrating 2025 campaign marked by poor qualifying form.
The Italian joined the KTM project this season after four years with Ducati, where he claimed seven grand prix victories. However, from the very first pre-season tests, Bastianini struggled to adapt to the RC16, particularly when running the soft rear compound.
The issue hurt him most in qualifying. Across the entire season, he reached Q2 only four times and managed just three top-10 grid positions. When he did qualify well, his race results improved significantly, highlighted by a sprint podium in Brno and a third-place finish at the Catalan Grand Prix.
Bastianini ended the season 14th in the standings with 112 points.
He explained that his weekends often followed the same pattern: difficult Fridays, some improvement on Saturdays, and much stronger race pace on Sundays. According to him, the key difference is tyre choice.
With the medium rear tyre, he feels confident and competitive, able to push and manage rear grip more naturally. In contrast, the soft tyre gives him no confidence, making the bike difficult to turn as the rear feels like it pushes wide in every corner.
Bastianini believes the off-season break will be crucial to reset mentally and technically, as he and the team search for solutions ahead of next year.
Despite the challenges, he feels the sprint race format has helped him better understand the bike, noting that he often shows strong pace during warm-ups and race conditions when using the same tyre as the main race.
