Ducati<\/a>, with the Italian\u2019s form wildly unpredictable from weekend to weekend.<\/p>\nMany have suggested that Bagnaia suffered mentally due to being Marquez\u2019s team-mate in 2025, which is something both the Italian and Ducati have repeatedly refuted.<\/p>\n
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But Schwantz believes his struggles coming as Marquez dominated certainly played a part, while admitting that Bagnaia has a \u201clong road\u201d to follow to get back to where he needs to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s a combination of everything,\u201d he told Gazzetta dello Sport at EICMA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe competition is so close that between being at the front and being at the back of the group, it’s often just a matter of a second.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you can’t afford to be too far behind. If you let these things go to your head, like seeing your team-mate always in the top three or top five, it’s easy to get distracted and not be able to focus on what you need and what you want from the bike.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how strong Pecco can be, we saw it\u00a0in Japan\u00a0too: fastest in qualifying, winner of the sprint race and then also the long race.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe know he has that kind of quality. Maybe, on that occasion, Marquez was just racing for the championship, maybe he didn’t push 100% to score just the points he needed to win the title, but Pecco just has to get back to focusing only on what he wants and what he needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard work: he won’t be able to ask [the team] \u2018What are they using?’ or ‘Why is he going faster than me?’, since what works for Marc doesn’t necessarily work for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he’ll have to try everything himself. It seems like a long road to get results, but I think at that level it’s the only way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bagnaia ended the Valencia test last month pleased with his feelings on the bike rode.<\/p>\n
Ducati announced recently that it will stage its official team launch for 2026 in Italy on 19 January.<\/p>\n
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