Ducati have not won a Grand Prix since the Qatar opener. Five rounds have passed without a Sunday victory, and eight since a rider in factory red stood on the podium — the longest barren run for the Bologna marque since the 2012 to 2014 era, when Casey Stoner's departure left them wandering through nearly two seasons of mediocrity.
With the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez on the horizon this weekend (April 24-26), the pressure inside the Ducati Lenovo garage has boiled over into a public disagreement between world champion Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia over exactly what is ailing the GP26.
Marquez, who arrives at the Circuito de Jerez Angel Nieto 36 points adrift of championship leader Marco Bezzecchi, refuses to blame the bike. He has shouldered the weight personally.
"It's me, not the bike," Marquez said bluntly when pressed on the cause of his winless spring.
The eight-time world champion admitted that the adjustments he has made in the off-season have left him second-guessing himself in the opening laps of every race — the very phase that used to be his strongest weapon.
"I need to really understand how to improve the first few laps. I don't feel comfortable on the bike," Marquez said. "It seems like I'm getting used to a position, not a natural position on the bike, and then I'm just riding along. I'm still fast, but I can't make a difference."
Bagnaia's version could hardly be more different. The two-time world champion, languishing ninth in the standings despite three previous wins at Jerez, insists the problem is the machine — specifically a rear-tyre-wear character baked into the GP26 that he says punishes his cornering style.
"In the last few laps, I was lacking everything. Even in the warm up, I noticed the bike was much heavier," Bagnaia said after his latest difficult Sunday. "I noticed a huge drop in tire wear. And in the last two, I almost crashed several times; the rear tires were dead."
Bagnaia went further, describing a handling trait that he believes is fundamental to the package rather than set-up specific.
"I can't enter the right-hand corners because I lose the rear end. With this bike, we have to turn with the rear tire, and that destroys the tires."
The contrast is striking. One rider says it's him. The other says it's the bike. And the Ducati that won 19 of 20 races only two seasons ago has suddenly produced neither a sprint win nor a Grand Prix victory in five straight rounds.
Aprilia, by contrast, are in the middle of a historic purple patch. Bezzecchi has taken five Grands Prix in a row and led 121 consecutive racing laps, a modern-era record. His teammate Jorge Martin — the 2024 world champion — is also now a confirmed Aprilia stayer for the long term and has added a fresh layer of internal competition that Ducati once enjoyed from Bagnaia and Martin.
Within Ducati's own camp, it is Fabio Di Giannantonio of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 satellite team who is currently the marque's highest-placed rider, having taken back-to-back pole positions and looking more at home on the GP26 than either factory man.
But until the Ducati clan agree on whether it is the rider or the machine that is lost, solving the problem may be harder than pointing at it.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/marquez-bagnaia-trade-blame-ducati-motogp-nightmare-jerez-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
