Has Ducati stagnated or have its MotoGP rivals caught up?

While Aprilia and KTM have clearly made rapid strides over the winter, Alex Marquez believes Ducati has stagnated, allowing the gap to widen at the front.

“Right now, they [Aprilia] are better, because they’re winning,” he said in Austin.” Last year, our bike was a bit ahead and they couldn’t beat us; this year, they are a step ahead, and I think we’ve remained a bit stuck in some way. That’s where Ducati is working very hard to bring new things.

“But I trust Ducati. I think there will be a point in the season where we can take a step forward. It’s always happened in Ducati’s history - when it’s a factory bike, they often need half a season to put everything in place, and then they start to perform very well, like in 2023 or 2022. So the hope is never lost. I’m the first one who won’t stop working and will keep giving my feedback to keep improving.”

Where is Ducati losing out?

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

With Alex Marquez enduring a lacklustre start to the season and reigning champion Marc Marquez still not fully recovered from his shoulder injury, VR46’s di Giannantonio has emerged as Ducati’s leading light.

According to the Italian, Ducati riders have now become overly reliant on the GP26’s rear-end, which remains the strongest point of the bike.

While this plays to Ducati’s advantage in sprint races, where tyre wear is less critical, it creates problems over full race distance as rear degradation increases.

“We need to improve our front, we need to be able to brake harder and bring more speed into the corner with the front,” he explained. “That is the issue that we have at the moment, that we're all on the rear, and once the rear is gone, we cannot really express our speed.”

Di Giannantonio claimed pole in the last two rounds at Goiania and Austin, showing how Ducati remains competitive on new Michelin tyres. However, that advantage doesn’t always translate into superior race pace on used rubber. Poor starts for di Giannantonio also haven’t helped Ducati’s cause.

“They have an advantage, they can brake a little later, they can go in with the brakes and they can use the front to turn the bike,” he explained. “At the moment we can't.

“We use the rear a lot. When you have a new tyre, the bike is really good, we can do whatever we want. But when the rear tyres start to drop a little, you don't have the front to support the drop of the rear tyre, so for us it's getting more difficult.”

He added: “In the last years we've done incredible races because we were ahead of the competition with the control of the rear tyre, but now that the [other] guys improved the front a lot, that control of the rear tyre is not enough. We need to improve the braking and the entry a lot.”

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