{"id":460821,"date":"2026-02-05T20:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/460821\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T20:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:56:11","slug":"once-again-ducati-shows-motogp-who-is-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/460821\/","title":{"rendered":"Once again Ducati shows MotoGP who is boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people have been predicting Ducati<\/a>\u2019s half-decade of MotoGP dominance will finally come under threat this season. After three days of testing at Sepang<\/a>, I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same old story. When you\u2019re in front you can keep chipping away at improvements, a tenth here, a tenth there, while your rivals are falling over themselves trying to catch up.<\/p>\n

No one knows this better than Yamaha<\/a> technical director Max Bartolini, who had a particularly stressful Sepang test, with all his motorcycles withdrawn from day two for safety reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I worked with Ross Brawn in Formula 1 [at Ferrari<\/a>], he always said that if you\u2019re in front and you work properly no one can catch you,\u201d the Italian told me a while back. \u201cBecause 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 and better. I think this is exactly what Ducati is doing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aprilia<\/a>, KTM<\/a> and Honda<\/a> have all made progress into 2026, but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ll be able to beat Ducati to the championship.<\/p>\n

What has Ducati done to stay ahead? Not a lot, but this year\u2019s Desmosedici equation is either GP24 + GP25 = GP26, GP24 \u00f7 GP25 = GP26 or GP24 x GP25 = GP26. In other words, they\u2019ve mixed their wondrous GP24 with what they learned last season to create the GP26. It\u2019s a mongrel bike (factories are only allowed to use 2024 or 2025 engines this year) but you wouldn\u2019t want to fight it.<\/p>\n

One thing is 99.99% certain, the Desmosedici GP26, ridden by Marc Marquez, Pecco Bagnaia, Alex Maquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio<\/a>, and the GP25, ridden by Frankie Morbidelli and Fermin Aldeguer<\/a>, all have the same heart this year.<\/p>\n

\"Joan<\/p>\n

How low can you go? Honda\u2019s latest ride-height device drops the RC213V\u2019s rear end super-low. This is Mir, on his way to his 1m 56s best<\/p>\n

\n Michelin\n <\/p>\n

How do we know they all use GP24 engines? We don\u2019t but it\u2019s unconscionable that Ducati would equip their riders with the 2025 engine that nearly burned down half of their factory garage last year. It would be like a general equipping his troops with a gun that doesn\u2019t shoot straight.<\/p>\n

The only reason half their factory garage nearly burned down last season was because there was nothing they could do to stop it burning down, because they weren\u2019t allowed to swap their 2025 engines for 2024 engines.<\/p>\n

When Ducati told us last October that Bagnaia\u2019s problems were related to the 2025 ride-height device, it had to be lying. Because no way would it have let its twice world champion fall into a pit of despair, thereby creating a swirl of anti-Ducati conspiracy theories, if they could\u2019ve avoided those difficulties simply by swapping ride-height devices.<\/p>\n

Bagnaia looked a different man at Sepang this week \u2013 relaxed and smiling because he knows he\u2019s back in the game.<\/p>\n

When the 2022 and 2023 champion was asked where his 2026 Desmosedici is better than his 2025 bike, he answered, \u201cBraking into the corner\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alex underlined the situation when he added that his GP26 feels just like his GP24 during corner entry.<\/p>\n

In other words, the engine inertia problems \u2013 either too much or too little \u2013 that destroyed his 2025 season and put Marc on a knife-edge, are gone.<\/p>\n

The big question now is will the 2024 engine give more to Bagnaia and Di Giannantonio or more to Marc, last year\u2019s three factory-bike riders? If it helps Bagnaia and Di Giannantonio more than Marc, it\u2019s good news for the fans.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Alex was faster than all of them, just like he was during last year\u2019s Sepang tests and again at the Malaysian GP. His best time on this visit was a 1m 56.402s, a fraction faster than the 56.493 he rode last year. Is Alex a better rider than he was in 2025? Quite possibly, but it\u2019s too soon to be certain.<\/p>\n

Either way it was no surprise that Alex, Bagnaia and Marc rode the best sprint simulations, all lapping within a few tenths of each other.<\/p>\n

\"Hedgehog<\/p>\n

Aprilia is using more downforce tricks than anyone, including its new hedgehog seat aero<\/p>\n

\n Michelin\n <\/p>\n

Like always, Ducati\u2019s biggest focus at Sepang was aerodynamics, because aero must be homologated on the eve of the season-opening Thai grand prix at the end of this month. All four GP26 riders have four different aero sets to choose from, consisting of different combinations of front wings, diffusers\/ground-effect bulges and seat aero.<\/p>\n

It also tried tiny new winglets at the bottom of the bike\u2019s front-fork shrouds.<\/p>\n

So far it looks like Ducati\u2019s 2026 front wings create too much downforce, so either their 2024 and 2025 upper fairings will probably be the choice, with 2026 diffusers\/ground-effect bulges. The other most significant new part on the GP26 is a lower-than-ever ride-height device, Gigi Dall\u2019Igna\u2019s proudest achievement.<\/p>\n

The best news for Marc is that his much-mangled right shoulder, injured once again at Mandalika<\/a> last October, survived the tests and on day three he completed his sprint simulation feeling \u201ccomfortable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ducati\u2019s five riders (injured Aldeguer won\u2019t return until the Brazilian GP) were all inside the top six \u2013 super-fast and super-smooth \u2013 so there\u2019s not much to say except they\u2019re all happy. Thus the championship will go to whoever can maximise their performance at all tracks and in all conditions, and you know what that means.<\/p>\n

Lonesome against the Ducati legions was Marco Bezzecchi<\/a>, who left it to the final moments of the final day to move into the 56s and go second fastest, splitting Alex and Di Giannantonio in the top three.<\/p>\n

Sepang was one of Aprilia\u2019s worst circuits last year, Bezzecchi qualifying 14th and finishing 11th in October\u2019s Malaysian GP, so Aprilia will go into the final pre-season tests at Buriram<\/a>, Thailand (21\/22 February) confident they can cause Ducati more pain in 2026. There\u2019s a real needle between Noale and Bologna, which gives this duel for engineering supremacy a real edge.<\/p>\n

\"Pedro<\/p>\n

Acosta gave himself and KTM a six out of ten for the test \u2013 is he on his way to Ducati?<\/p>\n

\n MotoGP\n <\/p>\n

Aprilia tech director Fabiano Sterlacchini described his 2026 creation an evolution of the 2025 RS-GP, which gave the brand their greatest season, with three victories and third in the championship.<\/p>\n

Once again Aprilia is the most radical on aerodynamics, with the latest RS-GP sprouting all sorts of aero appendages, including a hedgehog-like seat hump.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot too bad, positive days, can\u2019t complain at all,\u201d was Bezzecchi\u2019s evaluation. His sprint-simulation pace was more than half a second down on Alex, Bagnaia and Marc, but he ran used tyres to get better data.<\/p>\n

Honda was the last factory in the 56s, with Joan Mir<\/a> fastest on the second day, using the RC213V\u2019s new and super-low ride-height device to maximum effect. Mir\u2019s sprint simulation was also faster than most, but nearly a second off Alex\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are moderately satisfied \u2013 the bike is performing well and we are competitive,\u201d said HRC technical director Romano Albesiano. \u201cWe have improved what was already a good base. It\u2019s always a composition of small improvements \u2013 the engine, engine control strategies, the chassis and the bike is lighter and narrower.\u201d<\/p>\n

KTM didn\u2019t make it into the 56s, with Pedro Acosta<\/a> only managing a 57.2 and running half a second off Alex in his sprint simulation, so he only gave himself and KTM a six out of ten for the test. The latest RC16 features various new details, many of them designed to fix the bike\u2019s biggest problem, its appetite for rear tyres.<\/p>\n

But will that be enough to keep Acosta at KTM in 2027, when 19 of MotoGP\u2019s 22 riders are out of contract?<\/p>\n

\"Toprak<\/p>\n

Razgatl\u0131o\u011flu had a horrible start to his rookie MotoGP campaign: a slow, unreliable bike and no seat aero, because he\u2019s so tall that his seat unit doesn\u2019t allow it<\/p>\n

\n MotoGP\n <\/p>\n

Sepang rumours suggested that the Spanish youngster will join Marc in the factory Ducati team, while his place at KTM will be taken by Alex, a move the 2025 MotoGP runner-up hopes to announce before the season gets underway. Martin is supposed to have already signed with Yamaha, to replace Fabio Quartararo<\/a> who is going to Honda, because if Quartararo had any doubts about his move, the first tests of 2026 will have got rid of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many people have been predicting Ducati\u2019s half-decade of MotoGP dominance will finally come under threat this season. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-460821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460821","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=460821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}