Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia has revealed a fuel tank issue has been the reason for his struggles in MotoGP Sprint races.
Bagnaia finished third during the season opener in Thailand but was over three seconds behind new teammate and race winner Marc Marquez.
The Italian does not have a strong record in Sprint races despite taking seven victories in 2024 and explained the changes between the fuel tanks may cause his problems.
“There’s a scientific reason why I’m struggling in the sprint,” he said via Crash.net.
“We were trying to understand it and, honestly, the only thing that changes from the long race is the fuel tank – it is small, by the regulations.
“So, it changes a bit the dynamics of the bike and I’m struggling a bit more on the entry.
“But we are working on it, we are trying to solve it – today we just tried it in a standard way, but next time we will try something different.
“Apart from that, I just decided to go with the hard front tyre for the race tomorrow, but I was quite surprised that I finished it before the end of the sprint.
“So, for tomorrow I don’t know. I might have to consider doing something different.”
Francesco Bagnaia: ‘long journey’ to improve MotoGP Sprint struggles
Bagnaia added the problem with the fuel tank in sprints lessens when he leads races, but the problem appears behind other bikes.
When asked if he has ever done a sprint simulation on the standard size fuel tank Bagnaia said: “I did it and I was faster.
“But it’s something that you cannot do for the regulations. We are trying something different, like set-up or adding different things on the bike, but it’s a long journey to improve this because it’s already two seasons where the problem is more or less the same.
“It’s true that when I start in front the problem is less, when I’m already leading, because without someone in front I can force the braking.
“But if someone is in front of me, I’ll be for 10 laps, 15 laps, with one second of gap and I can’t close back. It’s quite a problem but we are trying to solve.”
Bagnaia also went in a different direction with tyre choice for the Sprint, electing to run the hard front while both Marc and Alex Marquez used the soft.
However, the double world champion says he is unsure which tyre he will use for the grand prix because of excessive wear he suffered.
“My problem with the soft is the braking; I don’t like when the front tyre is moving a lot,” he explained.
“In this track, there are many corners where you need to put more corner speed and more turning, and the soft helps a bit more, but I’m struggling to be fast with the soft like with the hard, so for tomorrow maybe we will change something.
“We will try to solve this problem, but if not I will go with the soft because the hard after 10 laps was already finished.”
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Strange comment re tyres , I’ll go with the soft for a race with twice the laps because the hard tyre was done after 10 laps , so you think a soft will last longer