Bezzecchi was marked out as a potential title contender coming into 2024, having finished third in the standings last year with three wins on his year-old Ducati.
But adapting to the 2023-spec Ducati that won the championship last year has so far proven difficult for the Italian, who qualified 15th at the Qatar Grand Prix and could only finish 14th in the race.
Bezzecchi’s struggles centre on lacking feeling on the front end, an issue which thwarted factory counterpart Enea Bastianini when he stepped onto the GP23 last year.
Unable to charge into the corners as he would like and get the bike to turn, Bezzecchi found in Qatar that he was burning up his rear tyre trying to get the rear of the GP23 to come round using the throttle.
“We had taken a step forward in the warm-up, and I was happy because I finally felt pretty good on the bike,” Bezzecchi said of his Qatar GP.
“But then, as soon as I started the race, my front end locked up a lot and I still can’t explain why.
“At that moment I began to lose sensation when braking and entering the corner, so I began to open the throttle earlier because I was missing something in terms of entry speed.
“That led me to run out of rear tyre very soon. I tried to manage the situation, but with 11 laps to go I had already switched to [engine] map C, which is the one with the least power, and there was still half a race left.
“It has been a very difficult weekend for me. We found some interesting things, but we have also seen that it is very difficult to right a grand prix that starts in the wrong way.
“In Portimao, we hope to find a better base from Friday to do better on Saturday and Sunday.”
Source: Autosport