How Ducati turned its feared MotoGP strength into a problem in Qatar

While it is true that the pre-season tests at Sepang and Mandalika already gave an inkling that Ducati would not arrive at the 2022 MotoGP season-opener as strong as expected, it was not easy to imagine a scenario as adverse as the one that transpired in Qatar last Sunday.

Gresini's Enea Bastianini assertively took the win in a very fast race, almost 11 seconds faster than the second one held in Qatar last year, on a track with much more grip. After staying on Pol Espargaro's backside throughout the race, the Gresini sophomore passed the Honda rider and unleashed a devastating turn of pace that no one could reply to.

In other circumstances, this result would only be a source of pride for Ducati, the bike supplier of the team founded by the much-missed Fausto Gresini. The Italian sadly died from COVID-19 last February, having recently announced his team's plans to to break ties with Aprilia and return to being a proper satellite squad. However, the Borgo Panigale constructor left Doha with a bitter taste in its mouth.

It had finally noticed something that Francesco Bagnaia, its theoretical spearhead in the fight for a first riders' world championship since 2007, had been warning for months. The 2022 prototype does not offer the same guarantees as the model that finished last season so strongly and which Bastianini took to victory - an impression that the numbers confirmed in an almost cruel way for the reigning constructors' champions.

The first Desmosedici GP22 to cross the finish line was that of Pramac's Johann Zarco, eighth, after overtaking Fabio Quartararo on the run to the chequered flag by just 0.007s. Zarco finished 10.5s behind the winner, a difference that represents an average loss of almost half a second per lap to Bastianini.

Pramac rider Zarco was the best-placed of the 2022 Ducati riders in eighth

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Ducati is in strife that must be put in order and must be done quickly. The problem is to know which way to go, given the different paths that exist. At Losail, on Thursday, each team had to homologate the type of engine it will use throughout the year. Ducati delivered three different specifications after Bagnaia opted to take two steps back and return to the 2021 engine, to which some modifications were applied.

By the power of the regulations, Bagnaia's decision dragged Jack Miller with him and indirectly altered Ducati's plans, which will now have to include three development paths when initially only two were planned. Of the eight Desmosedici bikes sharing the grid, three (including Bastianini's) are the model used last year. Meanwhile, Pramac duo Zarco and Jorge Martin, along with VR46's Luca Marini, have access to the newest version. And now there is a new third one, that hybrid version ridden by Bagnaia and Miller.

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One might deem it normal that Bastianini's bike, being much closer to its maximum evolution point, should start the world championship a step ahead of the new ones, which at this stage suffer from teething problems that are usually corrected by the passage of time. However, the margin that exists at this time between the two is very large. This is not an external impression, but one that the riders themselves give voice to.

"We are simply not prepared- neither in terms of set-up, nor electronics. I'm not a test rider, I'm here to win, to concentrate on riding in the best possible way" Francesco Bagnaia

Bagnaia and Miller, Ducati's two main bets to fight for the crown, spent most of the weekend testing things when instead they should have concentrated on sharpening their set-ups. It's a real paradox, considering that the Italian brand has more bikes on track than any other rival, which should allow it to diversify the work of component analysis and be more effective in diagnostics.

"Bringing eight bikes is something we've done in the past," Ducati's general manager Gigi Dall'Igna said before arriving in Qatar. "It's all a question of organisation, and I think we have the right group in that respect. It will certainly be important because we will be able to gather more information. And not only because of that, but also because we will have the option to test more parts."

But Bagnaia, who went from ninth on the grid to 14th on the opening lap and crashed out on lap 12 after a collision with poleman Jorge Martin, lamented: "We are simply not prepared. Neither in terms of set-up, nor electronics...

Bagnaia crashed out of the race while running ninth

Photo by: MotoGP

"I'm not a test rider, I'm here to win, to concentrate on riding in the best possible way. We had five days [in pre-season] to test things, precisely to avoid having to do it on the race weekend.

"Before it was the satellite teams who were in charge of that part of the work. If we continue working in this way it is clear that it will be more difficult for us to get the results of last year. If we want to win I have to be able to concentrate on myself."

Asked about these statements from a rider that just signed a new two-year deal with the marque, team manager Davide Tardozzi accepted the mea culpa and made a stern assessment of the situation.

"We have to be self-critical," he said. "The responsibility for the current moment is Ducati's, not Pecco's, in whom we trust 100%. This can't happen again."

Bagnaia's frustration is understandable considering that he got off a virtually infallible prototype, winner of five of the last seven races that have been held (four in 2021 and the first in 2022), to get on another one that in Martin's view "has lost all its strengths".

And with the likes of its rivals in Honda, Suzuki, KTM and Aprilia seemingly taking big steps forward, Ducati has quite quickly gone from having the best bike on the grid to being miles off where it needs to be. For now, it will have to rely on the bike it left behind in the hands of Bastianini and Gresini to deliver the results.

Bastianini will carry the burden of expectation while Ducati tries to develop itself out of its current mess

Photo by: MotoGP