In the second part of Motorsport Week’s six-chapter story exploring the 2021 MotoGP world championship season, we look at the trials and tribulations of Ducati as it looked to try and score its first riders title since Casey Stoner in 2007.
Having split with the experienced duo of three-time MotoGP championship vice-champion Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci at the end of 2020, Ducati elected to put its money on youth over experience heading into 2021, with Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia taking over in its factory squad.
Its stacked line-up continued with premier satellite outfit Pramac Racing as it plucked Jorge Martin from under KTM’s nose to make his MotoGP debut on a factory-supported GP21, the 2018 Moto3 world champion joined by Johann Zarco.
The first half of Ducati’s season proved to be one of relative inconsistency in the case of its riders, its GP21 showing great speed at a variety of venues-though rarely with one rider proving a sustained threat to Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
The Japanese marque rather embarrassed Ducati in its usual Qatar stomping ground, Quartararo and Maverick Vinales sharing wins-though Pramac’s pair would make their presence felt.
Zarco stunned as he left the Losail International Circuit following the curtain-raising double-header as points leader following a pair of runners-up finishes, while young team-mate Martin illustrated impressive learning ability as he went from struggling to score points in the Qatar Grand Prix to streaking to a shock maiden pole just seven days later.
He subsequently shadowed Zarco home in third to score a debut premier class rostrum result in only his second ever event, with Bagnaia also putting in a decent showing in his first outings as a factory Ducati pilot with a pair of top six finishes.
Zarco’s year would largely go off colour following the opening two rounds though as he only managed to set foot on the podium on a further two occasions, the virtues of sheer consistency meaning he would enter the summer break as Quartararo’s closest challenger.
It would be Miller who grabbed the headlines post Qatar- a pair of ninth places in Losail before a crash in the Portuguese GP having left him under pressure to perform- after he scored pair of emphatic victories in the Spanish and French GP’s, though much like Zarco this would prove to be a false dawn as inconsistency would see him drop out of realistic title contention as the season rolled on.
Bagnaia meanwhile looked to be the student quietly completing his revision in the background, collecting strong points as he entered the summer break having finished outside the top seven just once in the opening nine encounters.
His season would come alive as MotoGP returned to action in Austria, the Italian having made a break-through with the set-up of his steed that finally granted him the feeling he had been craving since the start of the campaign.
Excusing a couple of false-starts in the Styrian and British GP’s where he ended up only 11th and 14th– tyre issues limiting him in both contests- Bagnaia became one of only two men alongside Honda’s Marc Marquez to challenge Quartararo week-in week-out, an incredible first premier class win coming at Aragon as he fended off a relentless Marquez to end up victorious.
He backed this up with a clinical display to score a second straight win in the San Marino GP, strong points that would thrust him into a late title tilt-narrowing the Frenchman’s leading advantage from 65 to 48 in just two outings.
Having ended up third to Quartararo’s second in the United States GP Bagnaia needed to claim a second Misano win in the Emilia Romagna GP to keep his championship hopes alive heading into the final two races, a feat he looked set to accomplish with just a handful of tours to go as he looked to reduce his points deficit to 38 from 52.
Italy’s hopes would go up in gravel dust though as Bagnaia’s hard-compound front tyre-a risky choice in the cooler temperatures of the October weather on the Italian Riviera-gave up the ghost, sending him sliding out of the race, Quartararo sealing the title with fourth.
A pair of dominant wins as well as five consecutive poles capped off a sizzling final part of the season-helping Ducati to wrap up the constructors title for the second straight year as well as collect its maiden teams prize, Bagnaia ending up second overall-would certainly give its rivals something to think about in 2022, as would the form of its newest findings of Martin and Avintia’s Enea Bastianini.
Following a nasty crash in practice for the Portuguese GP-in which he suffered fractures to his right hand and foot-Martin was forced to miss a total of four events, stunting his progress somewhat.
It wouldn’t take him long to re-capture the scintillating form he displayed in Qatar though as he scored a second pole of the year after the summer break at the Red Bull Ring, his early season injuries now in the distant past as he looked to add another rostrum to his tally.
He would do even better than this though, Martin showing maturity beyond the five MotoGP weekend’s he had partaken in as he scored a brilliant maiden win in the Styrian GP, scoring a total of four rostrums as well as the rookies title.
Bastianini meanwhile would remain largely invisible through the year as he had to make do with two-year Ducati machinery.
A blazing charge from 12th on the grid for the reigning Moto2 world champion would result in a first ever podium in the San Marino GP, while he would manage an even greater achievement in the Emilia Romagna GP a month later.
Having started a lowly 16th, he evidently had managed to bottle the Misano magic he had stumbled upon previously as he sliced his way through the field to steal third once again, though this time it would be from champion elect Quartararo with a bold pass on the final circulation.
While Ducati will be left with a bitter-sweet feeling leaving 2021 behind, it certainly looks to have found all the ingredients for a 2022 title recipe-now it just needs to prepare them in the right order.
It has numbers on its side with the number of Desmosedici’s on the grid rising from six to eight following the addition of the Gresini team, while its young charges in Martin and Bastianini will be looking to build upon their impressive MotoGP bows with further upgraded hardware.
“I’m excited to see if we have some more horsepower (on 2022 Yamaha) because this is what we really need on the bike to compete with them (Ducati),” said Quartararo after Valencia.
“To be honest its super important because we are having some trouble, a lot of weak points we need to improve so hopefully we can address that with the new bike.”
We will leave you with the words of Bagnaia, the vice-champion insisting he and Ducati will enter the winter break “relaxed” after finding further gains with the upgrades brought for its 2022 package.
“Like yesterday I’m very happy, we worked even better and we found some very good things so we can go into the winter more relaxed.
“We also tried the new engine and everything worked well, we did an incredible time with the medium compound tyre which was faster my qualifying time here, so we’ve done a good job.”
And just like that, the hunter finds itself becoming the hunted.
