Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi has confirmed all six of its bikes will be using the 2024 engine for the next two MotoGP seasons.
While the Italian manufacturer has looked strong all pre-season, with Marc Marquez topping both days of the Buriram test, there has been uncertainty over its 2025 package.
The upcoming engine freeze is also a factor Ducati has had to consider which has led Gigi Dall’Igna to opt for the more conservative route.
This means that the Bologna-based factory will have a busy few weeks preparing three more 2024-spec engines ahead of the first race in Thailand which will be used by Marquez. Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio DiGiannantonio.
“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 said via Autosport.
“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,”
The moment Gigi decided not to take risks [with the 2025 bike], that has made us change the entire established programme.”
Tardozzi continued: “It is not just a question of humility, but of reality.
“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.”
“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.”
Marc Marquez: 2025 Ducati engine has ‘very weak points’
Marquez topped two days of testing at Buriram using the 2024 machinery, and was clear in his stance of taking a more “conservative” approach to the new campaign.
“I mean one thing is the engine and the other thing is all the small pieces that we have, new pieces,” Marquez said after topping day one of the Buriram test.
“Today basically we concentrated most of the day to 2024 engine, because looks like if tomorrow doesn’t change a lot, it looks like it is the way [for the season].
“Why? Because Ducati is very realistic and they know, and they are very smart, that we cannot take the risk to homologate an engine that if we are not 100% sure is better than 2024 because if we homologate the engine we homologate it for two years.
“So, we understand from the first day to today that the 2025 is a little bit more up and down: very strong in some points, [but has] very weak points.”
While using a year-old engine comes with some risks, the Spanish rider believes the experience over the different tracks can override the risks.
“They have the experience to use the 2024 in different race tracks,” Marquez said.
“They won 16 races last year, so that means that the bike was in a very good base.
“It looks like now we are going into that base, but tomorrow we will reconfirm. But I feel super good on 2024 base.
“When I say 2024, it’s the 2024 bike. It’s the base of 2024, the engine, but they work a lot on very small items that we are introducing to that engine now.”
Francesco Bagnaia: ‘nothing was working’ in MotoGP test
Marquez’s teammate Bagnaia had more concerns about using the 2024 engine, but conceded it may be the right decision for the team.
“Honestly, it’s a very difficult choice and in this moment we are both leaning, and the team also, in the same direction: to go with the 2024 engine,” Bagnaia said.
“Just because, not that the 2025 is not competitive, but we are still struggling to find a balance on braking.
“It would be like a ‘limbo’ to start the season with an engine that we are not finding any solution to solve this problem.”
Ducati will work on producing double the amount of 2024 engines ahead of the first race of the new campaign at Buriram on 28 February – 2 March.
READ MORE – Ducati set to make crunch decision over 2025 MotoGP engine
