IT'S ALL ABOUT REAR GRIP

Ducati dominated MotoGP like never before last season and will probably do the same in 2025 because Aprilia, KTM, Honda, and Yamaha cannot make MotoGP's latest rear slick work

- Mat Oxley

MOTOGP HAS NEVER seen domination like this in three quarters of a century. Ducati did not win every grand prix in 2024 (like Honda in 1997, with their wondrous NSR500, and like MV Agusta in 1968 and 1970, when the Italian marque had zero factory opposition), but Ducati won 19 of 20 GPs and filled 53 of the year’s 60 podium places.

How is this possible at a time when MotoGP’s technical regulations are written specifically to equalise the grid in the hope of creating crowd-pleasing racing?

Because Ducati introduced new technologies that transformed MotoGP, most notably downforce aerodynamics and rideheight devices. And once you are ahead of the pack with new technology, it is difficult for your rivals to catch up.

‘When I worked with Ross Brawn in Formula 1 [at Ferrari], he always said that if you’re in front and you work properly, no one can catch you,’ said Yamaha Technical Director Max Bartolini, who worked at Ducati from 2004 to 2023. ‘The others need to rush and make tests and try things and make mistakes, but if you are in front and you work in a proper way, you just bring something better and better and better. This is exactly what Ducati is doing now.’

Last season was not only Ducati’s greatest because the Desmosedici (in both its GP24 and GP23 iterations) was the best bike on the grid. Ducati were the only manufacturer able to successfully exploit Michelin’s latest, supergrippy rear slick, especially with the GP24. The tyre was a massive improvement—up to a second a lap faster, an unheard of year-on-year improvement—but Aprilia, Honda, KTM, and Yamaha could not make the tyre work.

How is this possible?