Ducati’s superiority in the 2024 MotoGP season clearer than ever: Joint data analysis as a secret and at the same time a cause of frustration for the competition
There is currently no way around Ducati in the premier class of the motorcycle world championship. Not only does the Italian manufacturer account for around a third of the entire MotoGP field with eight out of 22 bikes. Ducati’s superiority is also clearer than ever in terms of results.
At the six previous Grand Prix weekends from the end of April to the beginning of July, Ducati completely occupied the podium on Sundays! The last time a non-Ducati rider took part in the podium ceremony of a MotoGP Sunday race was in mid-April in Austin when Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) won and Pedro Acosta (Tech3-KTM) finished second.
In the six Sunday races since then – Jerez, Le Mans, Barcelona, Mugello, Assen, Sachsenring – only Ducati factory riders Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini, Pramac Ducati rider Jorge Martin, Gresini Ducati riders Marc Marquez and Alex Marquez and VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi have taken turns on the podium.
This is despite the fact that the Ducati armada is by no means always so concentrated at the top of the results lists at the start of the race weekends. In Barcelona, for example, Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro was the fastest on Friday, while at the Sachsenring it was team-mate Maverick Vinales. In Mugello, Vinales was the fastest in the first free practice session. However, Aprilia did not make much progress during the race weekends.
In contrast, the large Ducati squad with four teams always manages to optimize the set-up for almost all riders of a Desmosedici over the course of the race weekends so that they can be found at the front on Sunday. There are exceptions, such as the example of Marco Bezzecchi. Basically, however, the key lies in data analysis. For this, the modern MotoGP scene relies on videometry, among other things.
“Because there are eight of us, we can clearly see when there is someone riding a slightly better line,” says Ducati spearhead Francesco Bagnaia and uses the Sachsenring weekend as an example: “In turn 8 [Jorge] Martin was very strong, in turn 7 Marc [Marquez] was very strong, in turns 9, 10 and 11 I was very strong myself. “
Bagnaia: Frustration of the competition “doesn’t bother me “
“The more drivers you have [as a manufacturer], the more data you have at your disposal. And the more data you have, the easier it is to take the necessary steps,” summarizes Bagnaia.
The two-time and reigning MotoGP World Champion, who once again leads the MotoGP riders’ standings after nine of the current season’s 20 Grands Prix, knows exactly how frustrated the competition from Aprilia, KTM, Honda and Yamaha is with Ducati’s concentrated data analysis.
“I don’t care about that,” says Bagnaia, explaining: “For my part, I just try to do my bit so that our performance improves from session to session. “
There is one small consolation for the competition. In the 2025 MotoGP season, Ducati will no longer equip four teams, but “only” three. And of the six Ducati bikes in the field, only three are likely to comply with the 2025 specification.
It currently appears that VR46 will get a GP25, while the other two will of course be available to the factory team. In this scenario, Gresini would continue to ride two previous year’s bikes, and the second bike at VR46 would also be a previous year’s model. Pramac makes the switch to Yamaha for 2025, which reduces the number of Ducati bikes in the field from eight to six
