The reigning World Champion isn’t just sweating from the Thai heat—he’s feeling the heat from the competition. After a grueling 2026 PT Grand Prix of Thailand, Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia was brutally honest about Ducati’s current standing, admitting that the Bologna bullets have lost their crown as the grid’s undisputed kings.
Despite a rapid climb into the Top 10 early in the race, Pecco’s Sunday transformed into a tire-management nightmare, eventually limping home with a single point as the Aprilia and KTM machines vanished into the distance.
Pecco’s race was a story of extreme conservation that failed to yield results. Despite his best efforts to “nurse” the Michelin tires, the performance drop-off was catastrophic.
“I never pushed, just to control the rear tire. But with eight laps to go, I started to spin until fifth gear on the straight,” Bagnaia revealed.
The struggle comes as a shock after Pecco felt “fantastic” during pre-season testing at the same track. “From FP2 till the race, we started to struggle a lot. We need to improve because right now, we are not the fastest anymore.“
While the paddock whispered about the “special” tire casing brought to Buriram—one Ducati has historically disliked—Bagnaia refused to use it as an excuse, instead pointing to a loss of development ground.
“This is not true [that we dislike the tire]. We always win here and in Austria. But this time, Aprilia did an amazing job and we did a step back. Our bike was turning a bit less during the race weekend than it was in the test.”
Adding to the technical woes was the brutal 2026 climate. Bagnaia, who suffered minor burns during Saturday’s Sprint, confirmed the temperature was even higher than last year’s record-breaking heat, with soared 2°C higher than in 2025.
“It was really tough. I don’t know the exact temperature, but it was very high. Normally, our bike is good in the heat, so we must understand what happened.”
Credit Photo : BRIC
