MotoGP: Ducati’s 2020 Silly Season Has Already Begun

The MotoGP season hasn’t even got under way yet and we’re already looking at the problem that the Factory Ducati Team might have for 2019 and it’s not their championship chances, it’s their 2020 rider lineup.

When Jorge Lorenzo announced after the Italian Grand Prix – in which he won – that he would be leaving the Bologna Factory for Repsol Honda for the following season, the obvious choice to replace the Spaniard would be long time Pramac Ducati rider Danilo Pertucci. Sure enough, later that week he was announced to partner Andrea Dovizioso in the Factory Ducati Team for 2019, although he was only given a one year deal.

Petrucci won’t go down without a fight though – during the recent winter test at Sepang – Malaysia, he went and obliterated the fastest ever lap set by Lorenzo, set a year previously, by six tenths of a second (1:58.239) which looked virtually untouchable and would have sent warning shots to both Pramac Ducati riders of Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia. However, rookie Bagnaia wasn’t fazed and ended the test in second, only 0.063’s behind Petrucci.

Ducati See’s Potential In Bagnaia

Ducati signed the young Italian at the beginning of the 2018 season for 2019, ahead of his second season in the Moto2 championship. Many thought it was bold, teetering on risky to sign someone that hadn’t become world champion – yet! However, Ducati had seen promise in Bagnaia, in 2016 he had recorded the first win for Indian squad Mahindra in Moto3 (which was far from being the best bike on the grid) during an epic last-lap scrap to the finish at Assen, then followed that up with a stunning win at Sepang later in the year. Finishing 4th in the championship, he was promoted to Moto2 the following season with the Sky VR46 Team. He showed bags of promise in his rookie season, scoring 4 podiums, including an incredible ride to 2nd at Jerez in Spain and backing that up the following race with another 2nd place after his first front row start at Le Mans.

Bagnaia proved that it wasn’t just hype in 2018 when he romped to the Moto2 championship with 8 wins throughout the season and a further 4 podiums, proving that Ducati not only made the right decision but that he will be gunning for blood when he enters the MotoGP class.

Surprises At Test

On his first day on the Ducati at Valencia after the final race he found himself less than one second off of Maverick Vinales and followed that up the next day by setting a time that was almost one second faster than he had gone the day before. He made further improvements at the Jerez test, finishing the 2nd day three tenths off of the benchmark – Takaaki Nakagami.

However, during the Sepang test he made further improvements over three day test, stating that he is beginning to understand “how to ride” a MotoGP bike. This means that he is understanding the immense braking power of a MotoGP bike, with its carbon brakes, engine braking and the power delivery. More importantly, Bagnaia is developing an understanding of the Magneti Marelli electronics that are used in MotoGP, which will be completely alien to him as Moto2 bikes were as stock as they come in the Grand Prix paddock.

Riding a MotoGP bike requires a different riding style – coming out of a corner (compared to Moto2) Bagnaia said that “you have to pick up the bike more” before putting the power down. This means the tyre has a bigger contact patch and the rider can use the 250+bph to accelerate away from the corner. It can take a rider coming from Moto2 many months, maybe even longer to get their head around this but with Bagnaia feeling that he was “riding more like a MotoGP rider” he can then focus much more on the setting of the bike.

The 2nd fastest time at the test made a lot of people take notice. There is no denying that the speed is there but as a rookie the biggest hurdle could be from the consistency over a race distance. Bagnaia felt that “the pace for the race was good”, although looking at the times, on the final day he didn’t do more than 3 laps in-a-row and even then it is difficult to tell the true pace of someone. However, he is an intelligent rider and knows that speed and consistency brings results. After all, that’s how he won many of his races in Moto2 last season.

One of the Best Subplots of 2019

The 2019 season is a month away and there is one final test at Qatar on the 23rd of February before the season kicks off on March 10th.

Ducati will be looking to take their first championship since Casey Stoner in 2007 but with two fast and hungry riders in the Pramac team looking to prove themselves worthy enough for the 2020 seat alongside Dovizioso, Ducati could be in for a very difficult season in trying to manage a championship challenge and in deciding what happens to the second seat as Petrucci will be wanting to prove that he is worthy of the ride.

Miller will want to prove that he should have been given the seat instead of Petrucci for 2019, while Bagnaia will gain more experience and confidence with every passing race and will be ready to pounce on any mistake the other two make.

One thing is for certain – the intra-factory battle for that elusive ride will be one of the most fascinating subplots of the 2019 season and definitely one worth keeping an eye on.