The season had its ups and downs for Francesco Bagnaia. The Italian rider, in statements to ‘SpeedWeek’, talked about the sensations throughout the beginning of the championship until his victory at the Jerez GP.
– The first race of the season is always special. We started the same way we ended the Championship in 2023. We had a great race in Qatar, controlled every corner, every lap, and the feeling was incredible. I was more or less expecting it. What I didn’t expect was how things went afterwards in Portimão and Austin. We had some big problems in the Grand Prix, but we really need to find a solution.
Many Ducati riders say they found some problems in the Ducati GP24 version, Pecco clarified: ‘Yes, there are problems because we didn’t have the bike ready in the tests, not even with used tires. Then, the vibrations in the Sprint race in Qatar were terrible. It was the first time I felt them. In the long race on Sunday, I didn’t have any of these problems. So we said: maybe now we know how to do the lap time with this bike. Then came Portimão and I had incredible vibrations – in Austin I had vibrations on the right turns in the Sprint and in the Grand Prix on the left turns! This was difficult to understand and it was also difficult to predict what the bike would do. I think the potential of the GP24 is very high, we just need to understand it a little better.’
