Ducati opts for 2024 engine for all six MotoGP bikes

Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi has revealed that all six of its MotoGP bikes will be equipped with last year’s engine.

The decision, taken over the last 15 days, has led to a considerable change of plans and a deviation from the roadmap Ducati laid out over the winter.

Both Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia pointed out the difficulties they faced with the full GP25, particularly concerning braking, compared to last year’s bike that won 16 out of 20 grands prix.

The more compact format of pre-season this year – plus the obligation to homologate the engine for the next two seasons (2025-26) – has led Ducati general manager Gigi Dall’Igna to opt for the more conservative route and continue with last year’s motor.

It will force the Bologna staff to work overtime to manufacture enough units of the 2024 engine for its entire contingent. Initially, it only meant to build GP24 engines for three of its six riders.

“The engine will be the 2024 one for all Ducati riders. Will we get it in time? Well, all that has to happen in about eight or nine days, when the usual calendar would give us about three weeks,” Tardozzi told Motorsport.com.

With the MotoGP caravan set to leave Buriram on 13 February following the end of pre-season testing, and manufacturers required to homologate and seal their engines before the first practice session of the season at the same venue on 28 February, there is very little room for error at Ducati.

“The most difficult thing this winter for Ducati has been deciding not to use new elements in which we believed a lot – the 2025 engine or the chassis, things that have not worked as we expected,” added Tardozzi, a former racer himself. “The moment Gigi decided not to take risks [with the 2025 bike], that has made us change the entire established programme.”

Three of the six Ducati riders, Marquez, Bagnaia and VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio, were due to race with the full GP25 bikes this year – including the new engine – while VR46’s recruit Franco Morbidelli and Gresini duo Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer were assigned last year’s GP24 machines.

For Ducati, this winter has been a humbling experience because it is not easy to accept that the development work it carried out over several months has not borne fruit.

However, Tardozzi does not go into questions of pride and prefers to confine himself to a more pragmatic approach.

“It is not just a question of humility, but of reality,” he said. “At Ducati we are realistic, and we have seen that things did not work as we wanted. We have had to accept that we have not managed to improve what we had.”

However, Tardozzi finds it easier to acknowledge that Ducati could start 2025 with the base of last year’s bike, given how strong the GP24 was in all areas.

“The GP24 is an exceptional bike. I do not dare to say perfect, but exceptional. It will be difficult to improve it, although we will try to do so starting from the test after Jerez,” he said.

Morbidelli and Aldeguer tested GP25 engine

On Wednesday, Marquez and Bagnaia’s garage featured four bikes at all times, two per rider. All four were fitted with GP24 engines and chassis, but Bagnaia took to the track with the latest aero package, the same one Marquez later tested at various points on Thursday.

Motorsport.com understands that Ducati allowed Franco Morbidelli and Fermin Aldeguer to test the 2025 engine on the first day of running in Thailand, a move Tardozzi considers logical, given Dall’Igna’s data collection system: “This is Ducati’s current policy, to let satellite riders test things.”