How Ducati's expanded roster will threaten MotoGP's balance in 2022

Ducati has steadily increased its presence in MotoGP since it first appeared in the world championship with Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss in 2003. By 2006, it had expanded its presence to four units, with D'Antin Pramac as a customer. It secured a fifth in 2009, which went to Sete Gibernau and the Francisco Hernando Group. The signing of Valentino Rossi for 2011 meant that number rose to six: the two official bikes, two from Pramac, one from Aspar and one from Cardion AB. This grew further to eight in 2016, with Pramac as a satellite structure, and Aspar and Avintia as customers.

The formula used for distribution was quite simple. Depending on the company's budget and manufacturing capacity, the teams that invested the most and had the closest ties received more advanced prototypes. Those who invested less had to make do with bikes from one or even two previous seasons.

In 2018, Ducati went one step further and offered Danilo Petrucci, then a Pramac rider, a Desmosedici identical to those of Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso. It retained this arrangement for 2019, despite losing two entries and returning to fielding six bikes. That year, the Bolognese brand also took on the contracts of Jack Miller and series debutante Francesco Bagnaia, the Australian's then-team-mate at Pramac.

Six Ducati riders remained on the grid in 2020, but the number of factory riders increased to four, with Dovizioso, Petrucci, Miller and Bagnaia being given the responsibility. Ducati general manager Gigi Dall'Igna also recruited Johann Zarco and found a place for him at Avintia, with the parent company picking up some of the cost of the Frenchman's salary and bike - a 2019-spec Desmosedici.

Bagnaia, Miller, Zarco and Jorge Martin all had the latest Desmosedici and direct contracts with Bologna in 2021. Enea Bastianini also benefited from the latter, but he had to make do with a 2019 Avintia bike that he improved throughout the year. Luca Marini, with a 2020 prototype, raced under contract with VR46.

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From 2018 to 2021, Ducati went from earning two million euros for each prototype in the previous year - one million if the unit was two years old - to taking over the cost of the bikes and the contracts of almost all the riders who race with its material. And with this manoeuvre, it has also served to balance out a financial balance sheet that had ballooned.

Jack Miller leads a train of Ducati riders during the 2021 Valencia MotoGP

Photo by: Dorna

In 2017 and 2018, Lorenzo and Dovizioso's salaries alone reached 20 million euros. This year, between Miller, Bagnaia, Zarco, Martin and Bastianini, they are around three million, plus another three that have been paid in bonuses linked to results. The money now does not go to the riders, but is injected into the bikes and their development.

This new policy imposed by the Borgo Panigale company has begun to bear fruit, and despite not winning the championship in 2021, the Desmosedici has become - according to the majority of the paddock - the most balanced and sharpest tool on the grid. With seven wins, it is the bike that has accumulated the most wins last year, even ahead of Yamaha, who won the riders' championship with Fabio Quartararo.

"I think the 2022 Ducati will be a dominant bike," said Miller at the end of the Jerez test in mid-November, having picked up two wins last year at Jerez and Le Mans. "With the GP21 the problems of the GP20 have been solved. At the end of this season we were able to dominate. Steps forward are being made with clear improvements."

The 2021 runner-up Bagnaia, winner of four grands prix at Aragon, Misano, Algarve and Valencia, went even further: "The previous bike (GP21) was already perfect and we are improving it. This means that Ducati has done a great job, because optimising a bike that was already fantastic is not easy."

"Honestly, I think it's too many. If someone is playing for a title with Ducati and they have eight bikes to play with, that's outrageous. There is always a Ducati in front and that shows the potential they have" Joan Mir

Herein lies the big difference. In the past there were already eight Ducatis in MotoGP. But they were neither dominant bikes, nor mostly factory bikes. The policy back then was more business-oriented, but not in the global interest. In 2022 there will be five 'full factory' bikes (Bagnaia, Miller, Martin, Zarco and Marini), in addition to three 2021 machines (Bastianini, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi).

"The Ducati is the most competitive bike in the championship, and we all agree on that," admits Aleix Espargaro, who is still waiting for Aprilia to grow with a second pair of RS-GPs, something that will not happen for the moment.

"All the riders are very fast on it. From the point of view of romanticism, I would like every manufacturer to have four bikes. That was Dorna's idea, but for one reason or another it hasn't happened and Ducati has kept that market share."

The likes of Aprilia and Suzuki are totally outnumbered, with only two bikes each

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The one who must be most worried about the growth of the Italian brand is Quartararo, who will have to defend his crown against an all-powerful army.

"After the summer break [at Ducati] they took a big step forward," said the Frenchman after the last race. "They gained a lot of confidence. In Valencia, a circuit that in theory wasn't favourable to them, they got pole and a hat-trick. I'm worried about next year, but it's up to Yamaha to know what to do."

The 2020 world champion Joan Mir believes that eight is a lot of bikes to fight against, especially given the Ducati's tremendous potential.

"That's only good for Ducati - honestly, I think it's too many," he said in a recent interview. "If someone is playing for a title with Ducati and they have eight bikes to play with, that's outrageous. There is always a Ducati in front and that shows the potential they have."

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Honda's Pol Espargaro is of the same opinion, analysing the situation from his own point of view: "It's very negative. I'm not talking about the championship, but about me, about my interests. The Ducatis are working very well, and if they are able to evolve as well as they have this year, it will be bad for us. Throughout the year there have been many Ducati fighting for the win, and next year there are two more."

More pragmatic is Iker Lecuona, a stance that is surely influenced by the fact that the Valencian will not have to face the Borgo Panigale legion in 2022, when he switches to World Superbikes with Honda.

"The only thing that is certain is that if Ducati has eight bikes on the grid it is because they are the only ones who have been willing or able to do so," he said. "Suzuki and Aprilia only have two, so if they had wanted those places, they would have had them. If those eight Ducati condition the championship, it is because the others will have allowed them to do so."

In the same vein, Honda boss Alberto Puig expressed himself in a recent interview with Autosport: "You don't have to anticipate, you have to see who wins and how much you win. Ducati have a bike that everyone says is fantastic, but they haven't won a world championship since Stoner, and that was a long time ago. Fourteen years, to be exact..."

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Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images