MotoGP: FIM Court of Appeal Rule in Favour of Ducati – Qatar Result Stands

The FIM MotoGP Court of Appeal has declared in (favour) of Ducati and against the protest made by four of the other manufacturers.

Friday – March 22nd saw a panel of three judges made up of lawyers at the FIM MotoGP Court of Appeal made a decision at 10:00GMT in Switzerland on the protest made by Repsol Honda, Ecstar Suzuki, Gresini Aprilia and Red Bull KTM against Ducati and the spoiler that appeared on the bottom of the swing arm on Ducati Desmosedici after the opening round of the season in Qatar. After hearing the protest made by the manufacturers and the data provided by Ducati, the court decided that the spoiler wasn’t in breach of the rules.

On Tuesday the 26th of March the court handed out its decision and decided to reject the protest made by the quartet and deemed the spoiler devise on the Ducati GP19 legal. This decision means Ducati can continue to run the spoiler devise on the swing arm and the result of Qatar Grand Prix remains, with Andrea Dovizioso the winner.

The MotoGP technical rules hadn’t outlawed such a devise but what Ducati had done was push what is interpreted as legal to the limit, basically found a grey area within the rules and the teams that had protested wanted clarity and they wanted the devise banned as they believe it brought a performance gain. They felt that Ducati was in breach of the regulations and believed that the spoiler was being used for aerodynamic purposes rather than cooling, which Ducati suggested it was for.

Ducati Corse General Manager Gigi Dall’Igna before the hearing was feeling rather optimistic, saying that they weren’t worried about the outcome.

“We are confident that our work perfectly complies with the technical regulation. We are convinced and confident that the appeal will also be rejected.”

What happens next is anyone’s guess, the teams that protested to the MSMA (Motorcycle Sports Manufacturers Association) won’t be feeling vindicated. They can accept the decision and try and bring it up to the MSMA at a later day or they can take the matter to the Court of Arbitration (CAS) in Lausanne Switzerland. If they do this, they will only have five days to lodge an appeal against the decision made by the Court of Appeal.

For many fans, this feels like déjà vu. In 2016 when the Ducati’s winglets were deemed ok to use until the end of the season before a rethink of the rules, this left the rest of the manufacturers to play catch up and come up with their own designs. Now that the devise hasn’t been outlawed, this will give all the other five manufacturers (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Aprilia and KTM) a race against time to get their own designs on their bike as quickly as possible.