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Ducati’s reigning MotoGP champion Pecco Bagnaia admits his explanation for his victory-wrecking Circuit of The Americas crash sounds “crazy” – but there is some support from within the Bologna fleet.
The fall at COTA, coming two weeks after a crash out of second place in Argentina, left the 2023 title favourite at a complete loss and unconvinced he could’ve done much differently.
“I’m quite angry, disappointed. Not with myself, because I’m 100% sure it wasn’t my fault,” he told British broadcaster BT Sport.
“I have a lot of feeling with the front of my bike and I can push when I want, I can control when I want, like yesterday. But today just crashing like this was something too strange, too strange.”
Bagnaia went on to suggest that his Desmosedici may actually be too stable to offer the rider a proper warning when the front tyre is about to let go – an explanation that he admitted “you can call me crazy for”.
But to a fellow Ducati rider, Pramac’s Johann Zarco, it made sense.
Touching upon Bagnaia’s crash initially, Zarco actually linked it to Bagnaia’s high-performance level, comparing it to his own lack of confidence and consistency throughout what was, pace-wise, a surprisingly rough weekend.
“He’s so fast that he’s playing with this limit,” said Zarco of Bagnaia. “So, maybe for him, the wind… just a few degrees Celsius less on the front tyre. He risks it but he got the surprise of the crash.
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? 😱@PeccoBagnaia makes ANOTHER MASSIVE mistake! 🤯#AmericasGP 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/jdp34GTWti
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 16, 2023
“Me, I didn’t get it because I’m a bit slower and also I’m getting tired because I’m always careful to not have that kind of mistake. So I’m not relaxed enough [to crash].”
Told then of Bagnaia’s theory of the bike being ‘too stable’, Zarco said: “Ah, can be!
“Because sometimes a racing bike is like this. You do things that you’re even amazed that it’s possible. Can be.
“Anyway, to be fast, we need a stiff bike – and a stiff bike can react like this.”
The bumpy and slippery nature of the COTA surface was again a major talking point this weekend, and though many problem areas were discussed, Turn 2 was one that potentially went somewhat under the radar – despite accounting for just under 15 percent of the weekend’s crashes across the three grand prix classes.
Of the three races though, it only caught out Bagnaia.
Crashes during COTA weekend
Miguel Oliveira, MotoGP FP2
Augusto Fernandez, MotoGP FP2
Fermin Aldeguer, Moto2 FP3
Alonso Lopez, Moto2 FP3
Darryn Binder, Moto2 FP3
Albert Arenas, Moto2 FP3
Raul Fernandez, MotoGP Q1
Jorge Martin, MotoGP Q2
Alex Marquez, MotoGP WUP
Pecco Bagnaia, MotoGP Race
Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez, who fell at Turn 2 in Sunday morning warm-up, said the wind on Sunday was the big factor behind the high crash rate – and cited how it impacted Turn 2 in particular. “Yesterday was helping us, today was the opposite way. Was so easy to make a mistake.”
Bagnaia, however, reckoned the wind direction in that corner was different in the race to what it had been in the morning and was actually a help rather than a hindrance.
Bagnaia’s fellow Valentino Rossi protege Luca Marini, who had a view – albeit a distant one – of the champion’s crash in the race, said: “I saw his line, he was very tight inside of the corner. And during all the weekend he made Turn 2 faster than every other Ducati rider.
“So maybe with the wind it was a little bit tight and he made the corner like 10 kilometres [per hour] faster than us. And maybe he was asking too much from the front tyre.
“I don’t know, sincerely, we have to talk with him. It’s a pity for him because he’s fighting for the championship and he has lost a lot of points.”
LCR Honda’s Alex Rins, who had been running closer behind Bagnaia at the moment of the fall, similarly observed him as taking a tight line. But he also wasn’t entirely sure – and a review of the available helicopter footage doesn’t really indicate that Bagnaia took the corner in an obviously different way to Rins, or to the lap before.
It’s true Bagnaia was a tenth or two up the road compared to Rins relative to the lap before, although this does appear largely accomplished over the previous lap, so isn’t necessarily obvious evidence of Bagnaia taking extra risks in that particular moment.
Bagnaia’s point over a lack of bike-to-rider feedback runs counter somewhat to feedback being what Marquez has repeatedly highlighted as the Ducati’s strength since switching over from the Honda, although for ex-Ducati rider Jack Miller, it was a particularity of the COTA venue that the asphalt offered less feedback over even other low-grip venues.
As for Jorge Martin, who crashed three times during the COTA weekend, he said of Bagnaia’s theory: “I don’t know. Yesterday I had two crashes on the front, also today really strange, in different places.
“I feel quite a lot the front, but maybe in braking we need a bit more understandings.
“We have a lot of front lock and it’s difficult, we don’t know exactly why and we don’t know how to solve it.”
