‘I accepted everything’ - Bagnaia admits criticism he received was ‘normal’

Bagnaia was sensational during the second half of the 2022 MotoGP season as he overturned a 91-point deficit to Fabio Quartararo to win Ducati’s first title since Casey Stoner in 2007.

Aside from crashing out of the Japanese Grand Prix on the final lap, Bagnaia was close to perfection as he claimed eight podiums from the final ten races, including five wins. 

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Bagnaia also proved he can deal with the highest of pressures after holding off new team-mate Enea Bastianini for victory on several occasions.

However, the early part of the year was a complete contrast as Bagnaia made several mistakes that seemed to put his title hopes to bed. One of those included a battle with Bastianini in Le Mans where he crashed out after attempting to follow the Gresini rider.

With the mistakes came heavy criticism, which Bagnaia felt was ‘normal’ but also fair: "I think everyone can have his point of view and everyone can say what they think.

"So, I accepted that some guys don’t want to cheer for me because they prefer another rider. I can understand.

"I can also say they were saying the truth, because when you start the season with the pressure of winning you have to demonstrate that you have this possibility to be world champion and I was losing a lot of races because I was crashing and making a lot of mistakes.

"For sure, the start of the year this was not [an easy] situation because our bike was not working so well and it takes a lot of time to improve.

"But already in Portimao I did a big mistake in Q1, I almost broke my collarbone and it was a difficult race. Then in Jerez we did an incredible race, it was the key to be competitive again and then in Le Mans I crashed again in a stupid way."

Not all of Bagnaia’s DNF were his own doing as the Italian was taken out on the opening lap in Catalunya. 

But what followed two consecutive non-finishes in Barcelona and Sachsenring was a drink-driving offence in Ibiza during the summer break, which the Ducati rider immediately took responsibility for. 

But as expected, Bagnaia's mistake did little to dampen criticism he was receiving before going on to turn his season around. 

"We had bad luck in Barcelona, but [not in] the race in Sachsenring because I was there and I tried to follow Fabio," added Bagnaia.

"I didn’t need to approach the race in that way, because I was sure in the second half of the race the hard tyre would have been better.

"After all those mistakes it’s normal to receive some criticism, so I accept that. I accept also when I had my mistakes during the summer in Ibiza, I accepted everything.

"I try to improve myself every time and mistakes can happen, unfortunately. But without mistakes you can’t grow."