How ‘Beast’ mode is putting Ducati in 2022 MotoGP title contention

Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number. Its number is 23, as it turns out. Enea Bastianini – ‘Il Bestia’, or ‘the Beast’ – became the first repeat winner of a hectic 2022 MotoGP season when he stormed to victory in last weekend’s Americas Grand Prix at COTA on his 2021-spec Ducati.

The Gresini Ducati rider seized his maiden win at the opening round in Qatar but was only 11th and 10th at the following Indonesian and Argentina races, as various factors kept him out of the podium battle.

His COTA wins puts him back to the top of the championship by five points from Suzuki’s Alex Rins, while the first 2022-spec Ducati is 30 points away in seventh in the standings after four races.

It goes to highlight just how tricky Ducati’s start to 2022 has been, something few predicted last November at the Jerez test when Francesco Bagnaia – 2021’s runner-up – said the marque had been able to improve an already “perfect bike”.

That statement in itself, retroactively, in part explains why Bastianini has been so strong relative to his factory counterparts.

“Enea faces this year with a bike that is technically better than the one he had last year,” Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti told Autosport during the Austin weekend. “Moreover, it is the perfect bike, which is at its maximum level of performance and development, and which works everywhere.”

The 2022-spec Ducati’s new engine has caused some issues for its riders under acceleration – an issue Ducati hasn’t faced for a long time, as it was famously able to get the rear tyre to hook up under the massive grunt the bike has. Such were the issues, both Bagnaia and Jack Miller – who is Bagnaia’s closest title rival amongst the Ducatis right now – switched to a hybrid 2021/2022-spec motor for the new season.

Bastianini leads the MotoGP world championship again after victory at COTA

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Both Pramac riders and VR46’s Luca Marini remain on the full 2022-spec, while Bastianini has been upgraded from the GP19 he rode in his rookie campaign last year to the 2021 bike that was without question the best package on the grid at the end of the season.

The Austin weekend showed signs of improvement for those on the GP22. They’ve not been miles off, but any deficit in a championship in which 10 different riders have taken to the podium in the first four races is magnified. Ducati locked out the top five on the grid in qualifying at Austin – the first time a manufacturer has done that since Honda at Motegi in 2003.

Four GP22s led the way, with Pramac’s Jorge Martin storming to pole ahead of Miller, Bagnaia and the sister Pramac Ducati of Johann Zarco. Bastianini was fifth. Over a single lap, the speed of the GP22 hasn’t been in doubt this year; Martin was on pole in Qatar and was second in Indonesia and Qatar. Bastianini, meanwhile, was second in Qatar, fifth in Indonesia and 13th in Argentina. Thus, the potential that the GP22 riders claim is there with the new bike genuinely is.

"He is unreal with the way he puts the throttle down. He doesn’t ever use the rear of the bike to turn, which is my big problem. I’m always using the rear of the bike to turn, and he is able to ride it in a very smooth and consistent way" Jack Miller

But in the COTA race the GP22s struggled relative to Bastianini’s GP21. Tyre drop is always a factor in Texas races and Miller led Martin at the start for the first 11 laps. Bastianini sat third, keeping in touch and keeping his tyres – and his body – in reserve to manage a late drop.

Indeed, on lap 11 Miller started to pull away from Martin and Bastianini made his push, passing the Pramac rider into Turn 1 on lap 12. Miller was able to move about 0.8s clear, but Bastianini’s better-preserved tyres would bring the Australian into his clutches and rendered him powerless to defend when the Gresini rider came past on lap 16. He then stormed two seconds clear, while Miller would drop behind Rins to third.

But how much of that tyre conservation is down to the bike and how much is it the rider?

“That’s him. I mean, he was on the GP19 last year with the same issue,” Miller said when asked if the GP21 is better than the GP22 at saving tyres. “He did the exact same thing to me here, instead it was for sixth place. That’s him, he is unreal with the way he puts the throttle down. He doesn’t ever use the rear of the bike to turn, which is my big problem. I’m always using the rear of the bike to turn, and he is able to ride it in a very smooth and consistent way – and fast. And for tyre management, that’s the best thing.”

Bastianini is maximising the Ducati GP21 as the factory riders struggle with the GP22

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

This tallies with what Bastianini’s crew chief Alberto Giribuola told Autosport after his rider’s win at COTA. Giribuola was Andrea Dovizioso’s crew chief at Ducati and he sees similarities between the pair in how they ride the Desmosedici.

“I think that they are really similar because their riding style is a lot on the braking and using the front tyre on the limit,” Giribuola said of Bastianini and Dovizioso. “So, with that I find some similarities with Andrea. So, it’s also easier for me to understand what I have to do on the bike because I have history.

“They are a little bit different on exiting the corner. Enea always stays really a lot on the limit of the rear tyre, sometimes Dovi was a little bit more aggressive. So, for example we suffered a little bit in Argentina because there are some corners where you have to spin a lot to turn with gas and for Enea it’s a bit tricky to do that.”

Bastianini’s tyre management skills – “something that is in his DNA” – were evident in 2019 when he stormed through to third at both Misano rounds from 12th and 16th on the grid, and was sixth at Austin after starting 16th. What always let him down was qualifying, which is now something he has seemingly figured out.

“I think he basically found a little bit more the limit on the rear,” Giribuola offers when Autosport asks where Bastianini’s time attack form has improved. “Last year he was riding on qualifying like in the race. So, he just made a step to the limit a little bit higher on the qualifying and he improved a lot this year.”

So, comparing how he is riding relative to the GP22 runners, Giribuola believes Bastianini’s feeling with the front-end is the key difference – and lends itself to his ability to better preserve his rear tyre.

“Honestly, I think Enea is really, really confident with the front,” Giribuola adds. “He is using the front tyre at the maximum. At the moment he can gain a lot entering the corner [and] doing that he can save the tyre going out of the corner. So, yeah, the difference is that one. I don’t think that for the moment we are in a lower package in respect to the 2022.”

Bastianini has a similar riding style to Dovizioso on the Ducati according to crew chief Giribuola

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Giribuola also noted one major difference between Bastianini and Dovizioso was how his approach to riding is based “more on the feeling” he has underneath him. Dovizioso could sometimes “overthink” the bike.

Bastianini himself notes he needs to make a step on how he approaches the middle of the cornering phase as he is slower than Martin and Miller when he checks the data. So, he is not perfect on the GP21.

However, what is clear is that while he does have the best Ducati package underneath him right now, Bastianini is maximising that. This is why Ducati leads the constructors’ championship right now by 27 points, is the only repeat winner of 2022 so far and leads the riders’ points with Bastianini.

This now poses two questions for Ducati. The first is what it now does in terms of direction with its 2022 bike. Martin has already admitted in previous races that he’s gone back to a set-up he used to good effect in 2021 and has made gains with that – though is bizarrely struggling with top speed having been around 8km/h down on Bastianini’s GP21 through COTA’s speed traps last weekend.

What is clear is that while he does have the best Ducati package underneath him right now, Bastianini is maximising that

While Ducati is happy to have Bastianini and Gresini winning races and doing so well, it wants its official team to be fighting for the championship. Right now it has been trying numerous things in terms of set-up and development – particularly at Pramac – to try to better understand the GP22. Now it must settle on a direction, and perhaps that will be by taking a step back to go two steps forward.

The second is what it does about its line-up for 2023.

During the Austin weekend Miller revealed to Autosport that he has been “left in the dark” by Ducati over his future and there has been no discussions. Ahead of the COTA weekend, it was odds-on that Martin would likely be the one to get the nod to step up to join Bagnaia next year.

Martin appeared favourite for the second factory Ducati spot for 2023, but Bastianini's results could complicate that call

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

But Bastianini’s Austin win will have likely complicated things. Right now, it’s not clear just how good Martin can be on the GP22 given how much work is still being done to the bike and the fact it’s still not showing its full potential. Would his results be similar, or even better, on Bastianini’s bike?

This is something Ducati will have to take into consideration in deciding who gets the factory team nod and who gets the factory-backed Pramac seat (which is somewhere Miller could well find himself at again in 2023). And of course, the question mark remains on where Bastianini will be in the pecking order when the GP22 eventually out-develops the GP21 – which is now at its peak.

But it can only judge what it sees in front of it. And right now, Bastianini is clearly the best Ducati rider on the grid.

Can Bastianini keep up his form with the year-old Ducati and fight for the title?

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images