Ducati hasn\u2019t seen a single season of dominance like it since its first title-winning year in 2007 with Casey Stoner.<\/p>\n
Alex Marquez<\/a> picked up three wins for Ducati on the Gresini Racing GP24, while Pecco Bagnaia<\/a> had two on the factory GP24 and rookie Fermin Aldeguer<\/a> one on the sister Gresini-run GP24. As far as winning goes, it\u2019s another year where four of its entrants stood on the top step of the podium.<\/p>\n Some of its number drops compared to 2024 can be easily explained by the loss of world champion Jorge Martin to Aprilia, while its stable shrank from eight to six bikes, as Pramac ripped up its title-winning partnership to join a rebuilding Yamaha. Given the year Marco Bezzecchi had on the Aprilia in 2025, it\u2019s hard not to have seen him do similar levels of winning on a Ducati at VR46 had he stayed.<\/p>\n The job that Marc Marquez did, particularly in how he was able to be consistent on a GP25 package that Bagnaia and Fabio Di Giannantonio struggled with, has led to accusations that 2025 was largely saved by the 32-year-old.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Certainly, his absence from the final four rounds due to a shoulder injury suffered in a collision at the Indonesian Grand Prix showed just how valuable he had been up to that point. Aprilia rocked to a double at Phillip Island and was untouchable on the final two Sundays in Portugal and Valencia.<\/p>\n Bagnaia\u2019s ongoing, and frankly baffling, troubles meant the factory team scored just two points from the final five grands prix, and those were at the hands of Marquez\u2019s stand-in Nicolo Bulega. Di Giannantonio\u2019s well-earned factory bike step wasn\u2019t enough to bring him back to winning ways, while the GP24s of Alex Marquez and Aldeguer were very long in the tooth against an ever-developing factory Aprilia come the last races.<\/p>\n That said, second in the championship was Alex Marquez on the Gresini-run GP24. He was 78 points clear of Marc Marquez come the end of the campaign, but was still 114 points ahead of third-placed Bezzecchi.<\/p>\n Had Marc Marquez been out for longer in 2025, or not raced at all, Ducati still wins the championship with Alex Marquez.<\/p>\n Marc Marquez\u2019s contribution on track in 2025 firmly lifts this season into one of the best for a rider ever. But to suggest Ducati\u2019s 2025 championship success rested solely on him is to ignore the fine job Alex Marquez did on an older bike. And even with an older bike, he still bested the might of a galvanised Aprilia.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Factory Racing, 2025 Valencia MotoGP<\/p>\n \u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n The elephant in the room Aprilia mustn\u2019t ignore<\/p>\n The fact Aprilia ended 2025 as the second-best manufacturer, having achieved its best season statistics ever, really is something worthy of indefinite praise. Its big-money play to snare Jorge Martin for this season ran off the rails just 13 laps into testing at Sepang in early February.<\/p>\n The hellish tale that followed could have seriously hindered everything about its season. KTM, for all of its statements to the contrary, did ultimately admit its winter financial struggles set the MotoGP project back in the first half of the year.<\/p>\n Aprilia, minus its champion star signing, helmed by a rookie to the bike in Bezzecchi, an actual rookie in Ai Ogura, and a Raul Fernandez who did appear to fall on management\u2019s wrong side in the first half of the campaign, managed to get off to an encouraging start.<\/p>\n And it only got better as it improved the bike\u2019s stability problems. The Silverstone win was a dose of good fortune, but Aprilia never really let up from that point. From the summer, Bezzecchi would be the rider regularly leading or battling with Marc Marquez. In his absence, he was able to grab two more grand prix wins in the final two rounds.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n What will have caught Ducati\u2019s eye, particularly in the second half of the season, was the step that Aprilia was able to make on a Sunday. Technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini said this was a product of the 2025 RS-GP needing longer to set up on Fridays, but with the trade-off being a stronger race bike.<\/p>\n KTM\u2019s Pedro Acosta always made a point of noting that Ducati, from Saturdays, tended to take a step. In the latter part of the season, that began to diminish.<\/p>\n Arguably, Aprilia should have taken four wins inside the final five rounds. Bezzecchi had great pace at Mandalika, but couldn\u2019t see it through after his lap-one collision with Marc Marquez. Aprilia was still able to win in Australia with Fernandez, but Bezzecchi was almost certainly denied that day by his penalty as a consequence of the Mandalika incident.<\/p>\n Still, the absence of Marc Marquez is something that cannot – and should not – be ignored by Aprilia. For the most part, it has kept its feet on the ground. It acknowledges that 2026 offers an opportunity, but there is a wariness that nobody really knows what would have happened had Marquez been fit in the final five rounds.<\/p>\n Given two circuits – Phillip Island and Valencia – were anticlockwise layouts, there is a strong case to suggest Marquez would have made life harder for Aprilia. Sepang has never been a strong venue for Marc Marquez, but if Bagnaia was able to challenge for the podium, its hard to imagine the No.93 wouldn\u2019t have done the same.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Alex Marquez, Gresini Ducati, 2025 Valencia MotoGP<\/p>\n \u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n 2027 development could pose a trap for Ducati\u2019s rivals<\/p>\n The development freeze imposed on engines for everyone barring Yamaha, in theory, means the step Ducati could make in 2026 will be a small one. It is adamant that the problems the likes of Bagnaia and Di Giannantonio struggled with were nothing to do with the engine it used, after abandoning the full 2025-spec pre-season.<\/p>\n Bagnaia\u2019s front-end issues seemingly centred on the rear ride height device introduced for 2025, though Ducati really never was very forthcoming with explanations for the double world champion\u2019s slump.<\/p>\n Early indications from the Valencia test are that Ducati seems to have done something to its bike that has been well received. On the \u201cmore hidden things\u201d tried in Valencia, Bagnaia was especially positive: \u201cWe managed to do a good job, the feeling on braking and entry was much better\u2026Very happy about the things we tried, and happy with the new fairing that looks good. But we need to do more laps because this track [Ricardo Tormo] is not very good for the aerodynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Marquez, who will get a factory bike for 2026, noted: \u201cThey are very, very similar bikes. There are different parts, but it was just about testing to see which direction to take and how to put everything together. There\u2019s a mix of things that we still need to understand\u2026I felt good, comfortable from the first session.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Davide Tardozzi admitted earlier this year that Ducati eased off development of its GP25 because of Marc Marquez\u2019s domination. Now forced to dig into his war chest, general manager Gigi Dall\u2019Igna – as he so often does – will likely produce exactly what Ducati needs to take that half-step to keep its rivals in line.<\/p>\n Though it needs to dig a little deeper than perhaps it anticipated, Ducati still has several luxuries in hand that its rivals do not.<\/p>\n The loss of Jorge Martin and Pramac threatened to weaken the Ducati roster for 2025. But it’s come through with all six of its riders standing on the podium more than once last season. It has four active race winners, and two on its books with past proven pedigree.<\/p>\n Fermin Aldeguer has developed much faster than expected into a rider capable of running at the front, while Alex Marquez\u2019s step has come as a welcome bonus at a time when Pecco Bagnaia\u2019s form is in serious flux.<\/p>\n And, of course, it will have a fit and healthy Marc Marquez back in time for testing. While there is still the uncertainty of steps he will ultimately feel happy with Ducati taking, he has a proven track record of just making things work.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n For all of the desire to call the GP25 a misstep, he ensured that there is no way it can ever be considered a bad bike. While there was an obvious adaptation period to the GP23 last season, it did take him until Aragon to finally win on it. From the off in 2025, he looked comfortable and competitive.<\/p>\n Even if the GP26 doesn\u2019t really evolve much in the way others would like, that will still likely be good enough for Marquez. And good enough for Marquez is still a step ahead of everyone else.<\/p>\n The other thing Ducati has that it can play to its advantage in 2026 is the impending regulations change. At a certain point, all development resources are going to have to go into the 2027 project.<\/p>\n Last season was the first time we\u2019ve seen the concessions system actually get to Ducati, as its limited testing and lack of wildcards meant it couldn\u2019t make the same gains as others. That will continue into 2026, for sure, but the burden is on Ducati\u2019s rivals to make the most of that without falling into the trap of devoting too many resources to a title fight to the detriment of 2027.<\/p>\n While Ducati won\u2019t want to lose the championship, there is more pressure on the likes of Aprilia or KTM if an opportunity presents itself in 2026. In that scenario, either of those two manufacturers may be willing to take from 2027 to claim something that might not come around again so easily in 2026. Ducati, with all of its success to this point, can afford to lose a battle to win the war.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Without question, Ducati start 2026 closer to its rivals than we\u2019ve seen since it started winning riders\u2019 titles again in 2022. But that gap isn\u2019t as small as it looks\u2026<\/p>\n Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the final year of the current 1000cc regulations cycle comes into view, there is a palpable sense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[8454,64,63,17197,8456,7607,4280,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-316313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-alex-marquez","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-ducati","12":"tag-ducati-lenovo-team","13":"tag-francesco-bagnaia","14":"tag-marc-marquez","15":"tag-motor","16":"tag-motor-sports","17":"tag-motosport","18":"tag-motosports","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Marco](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gng_1285534_hires.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764414189_721_gng_1287112_hires.jpg\")
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