Francesco Bagnaia

Lorenzo, you know, we all thought it would happen.

Bagnaia, it hasn't happened.

We haven't had the Lorenzo Rossi beat somebody on the same bike.

We've had Martin and Bagnaia, both on a Ducati, similar thing.

Mark hasn't had that.

He's always been the dominant force on the bike he's on.

you know, kind of afterwards.

They don't really do that, you know, native debriefs anymore following the press conference, which I think is a shame because you did tend to get more interesting quotes out of that.

that...

Is Ducati not giving Pecco the tools or has Pecco mislaid the tools because he's been distracted by the fact that...

Or you could say Ducati have given him the tools that he is unable to use, which, you know, again means he's a now misfit and he's better off elsewhere.

But the thing is, he's not saying anything that's radically revelatory.

Didger has been incredibly consistent, maybe not up to like winning and regular podiums, but like, you know, he's consistent in Despite the bike.

Yeah, he owns fourth place.

And then Pecco is just completely lost.

So

But it's newer for Bez than it is for Marc.

It's newer for Bez than it is for Bagnaia, right? Because this is, this is really Bez's first year of trying to get a, even think about fighting for the championship, much less to say, you know, "I can get it."

He, I mean, he had a, he had a little bit of an outright chance last year.

And I will say this, Bez even acknowledged in a post-race interview that Marquez has so much more time and knowledge and experience-

I'm just thinking of some ice skating reference from back in the '80s.

[laughs] Uh, Lewis, man, what are your thoughts on, uh, the, the main race? Um, you know, the, the pros and cons.

You notice I didn't bring up, uh, Bagnaia, but that, that'll give you a little room for that, for that, uh-

No, no, I mean, uh, it's...

You will get lots of slightly loose punditry from both of us, often about subjects that we don't, we don't get to broach on, on, on, on these episodes, uh, for reasons of time and interest.

So if, if, if you feel like, oh, there's, there's more stuff I would like to know about the 17th best rider in MotoGP or whatever, um- Then, then no, there's gonna be a Pecco Bagnaia segment later.

No, no, that's [laughs] that was ...

I shouldn't have said that.

Uh, if you lose a title that doesn't mean you're not going to win a title in the forward.

If you buckle a bit doesn't mean you're going to, not going to bun- bounce back and, and win.

I mean, Lord knows Pecco Bagnaia has buckled, had buckled enough in his career before what happened happened at Ducati for the two seasons that h- that he won the championship.

Lord knows Jorge Martin has buckled before he was able to deliver the, the satellite title.

And Martin was riding for the independent team with pretty much the same setup.

He beat Bagnaia.

You know, I'm not saying that's no feat, but it's not beating Marc Marquez, you know? And so...

You know, we've got eight or seven races left.

Um, and actually, yeah, behind Patrick right now and just over there, that's the Factory Ducati setup.

Um, you got Marc Marquez, and you've got Pecco Bagnaia.

That's the two factory riders.

Um-

Um, and again, I think he was just like fed up of it, and he wanted it to be out there so that it, he can just point to the picture and say, and, and to try and quieten it.

But as you say, Pecco Bagnaia in, in his debrief said, like, "I would never have done it.

My strategy has always been not to tell anyone." We found out after he had had, uh, arm pump that he was struggling with, um, arm pump.

So I think-

He, he's, he's, he insists that he's still enjoying it, but it definitely comes at a cost.

I think there is also, I think there is also a Ducati factor at play, as I was saying before.

If you think about it, um, Pecco Bagnaia said to, today said, uh, "If there were four GP24s on the grid, uh, with Ducati would be one, two, three, four." Now, there has been a lot of critic- or criticism.

Du- if you go back to '24, Ducati was completely dominant.

I see that some of the MotoGP riders are...

I think Pecco Bagnaia was like, you know, "It's, it's exciting, but it's, it's no Phillip Island." Like, Phillip Island's...

used to be one of the best races to watch on the MotoGP-

Yeah