Francesco Bagnaia just trying to "survive" on Sundays as tyre troubles continue

Francesco Bagnaia identified tyre wear on Sundays as a recurring problem area as he tries to inject some momentum into his 2026 MotoGP campaign. 

The Italian, who is trying to bounce back from a nightmare season in 2025, has had limited success in that ambition so far this season. He did have an encouraging outing in the USA last weekend, qualifying fourth-fastest and coming within half a lap of winning the sprint race. But tyre wear saw him fade dramatically in the grand prix, which he finished 10th.

Bagnaia, who was running fourth with just three laps to go, said that going into conservative mode early on hadn't helped him save the tyre.

"Even [though] I wasn't pushing, I finished completely out of rear tyre," said the double world champion. "After eight laps, I started to feel a big drop.

"The last two laps, I was completely on the limit. I was risking to crash, just leaning on the right side. It was very difficult."

He added that despite starting higher up the grid than in Thailand and Brazil, the pattern on Sunday had been the same.

"In all three races from the start of the season, I struggled a lot in the Sunday race. I cannot push like I want. I just need to survive.

"Even [just] surviving, I finished the rear tyre completely. We need to understand what to do."

Bagnaia, who was enjoying victory hot dogs at this race a year ago, suggested that a lack of front-end turning capability was causing the GP26 to overuse its rear tyre. 

"Right now, I think that our bike needs to turn with the rear because the front is pushing up. We cannot stop while the bike is pushing quite hard. I need to turn with the rear and I destroy it."

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

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

Fellow Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio, who finished fourth on Sunday after starting from pole position, echoed Bagnaia's sentiments. 

"I think we need to improve our front," said the Roman. "We need to be able to brake harder and bring more speed into the corner with the front. That is the issue that we have at the moment, that we're all on the rear. And once the rear is gone, we cannot really express our speed.

"We use the rear a lot. When you have a new tyre, the bike is really good and we can do whatever we want. But then when the rear tyres start to drop a little, you don't have the front to support the drop of the rear tyre, so for us it gets more difficult."

Di Giannantonio started from pole in both of the last two races, but has not been able to convert that to a victory on either occasion.