How the real Ducati began to emerge in MotoGP’s Spanish GP

“The old bike was already perfect and we are improving this one.” This was the ominous claim made by Francesco Bagnaia at Jerez last November following two days of testing on the 2022 Ducati.

Having ended the 2021 season with four wins and a march to runner-up spot in a championship he only lost by 26 points, Bagnaia was expected to start 2022 as he’d ended the previous season.

But from the off in February’s pre-season testing in Malaysia and Indonesia, the GP22 was not the bike it first appeared. Its new, more powerful engine was causing drive issues out of the corners, while the general make-up of the bike meant Bagnaia couldn’t ride it in the way he was used to doing.

The first signs of trouble became apparent on the eve of the opening round in Qatar, when it was revealed that Bagnaia – and thus team-mate Jack Miller as per the regulations – had switched to a hybrid 2021/2022-spec engine to run for the rest of the season. Both riders and Ducati management brushed this off as simply a decision being made to take ‘the best’ engine available.

But it caused a headache for Ducati. With eight bikes on the grid, the Italian marque now had three different specs to collect data from. This almost certainly wouldn’t have made developing the GP22 any easier, not least because two versions of the bike had two different engines.

Before Jerez, Ducati won twice with its fully developed GP21 courtesy of Gresini’s Enea Bastianini, while Pramac duo Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco on the ‘full’ GP22 managed third in Indonesia, second in Argentina, and second in Portugal, while Jack Miller was third in America on the factory team's hybrid GP22. The GP22 clearly had potential then, but not consistently in one rider’s hands and not enough to fight for victory consistently like the GP21 did.

Bagnaia has had a difficult start to the season on the new GP22 Ducati, taking just one point from the first two rounds

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

From Bagnaia’s perspective, his start to 2022 was disastrous. He crashed out of the Qatar GP in a collision with Martin; struggled to 15th in the wet Indonesian GP; was fifth in Argentina and Austin, then finished eighth in Portugal having come from last after a crash in a damp Q1 left him with a shoulder injury. As a result, he was 38 points adrift of championship leader Fabio Quartararo coming to Jerez.

The reality was, however, Bagnaia was slowly beginning to figure the bike out from Argentina. Missing the front confidence that allowed him to end 2021 as the strongest rider, a set-up tweak to alter the weight transfer was key in his round three charge from 14th to fifth. Ultimately, it was the same in Portugal.

After beating Quartararo by 0.285s after 25 laps at Jerez, Bagnaia explained that the return of his front-end confidence was a result of him no longer trying to adapt the bike to his riding style and instead adapting himself to the package.

The fact Bagnaia has seemingly unlocked the potential of the GP22 “I always knew was there” at a track layout like Jerez is an immensely positive sign for Ducati going forwards

“I was more optimistic during the test, but arriving to the first race the reality was a bit different and I started struggling a bit,” he said. “But I think we did a good thing in stopping trying to adapt this bike to me and just leaving the bike the same. For sure this bike needed a different riding style, because now I can be faster into the corners. So, it’s a bit different. But finally I think that I’m back to my best shape like I was last year and I would like to continue like this now, not losing points.

“Already last year I was using more corner speed, but this year the bike is a bit different. I was struggling to have the same riding style as last year. In the last two weekends I worked a lot to enter [corners] faster and understand how to do it. It’s not easy to change like this, because I worked a lot in the previous years with Ducati to have great braking, great entry. Now it’s a bit different. We are speaking about tenths, so it’s not a big difference. But the biggest difference now is I can enter much faster.”

If there was one track that would truly expose just how much progress Bagnaia had made with the GP22, it would be Jerez. The circuit's mix of fast and flowing corners, permeated by several big braking zones, requires a bike to have a stable front end.

In qualifying, he put in “my best lap ever” to claim a first pole of the campaign by a whopping 0.453s from Quartararo. Key to that lap time was how quick he was through the third sector, comprising of the big stop into Turn 6, the fast Turn 7/8 left-handers and the tighter 90-degree right at Turn 9. Bagnaia was 0.298s quicker than anybody else through that segment, highlighting his renewed front-end strength.

Bagnaia took pole with an immensely committed qualifying lap to put himself over four tenths clear of the pack

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

During the race, this would prove a vital weapon in his arsenal to beat Quartararo. Both riders’ pace beyond lap one never strayed slower than the 1m38.4s margin as they romped away from the rest of the field by close to 12 seconds. The gap between the pair fluctuated from just under three tenths to just under a second, as Quartararo backed off at one stage to preserve his front tyre temperature. Throughout the race, the Frenchman was generally stronger through the final sequence of fast right-handers into the hard braking of the final corner – prime Yamaha territory.

“I was very scared about the last corner, because last year [Quartararo] was exiting very fast,” Bagnaia said of his approach to the race start, where he snatched the holeshot on the run to Turn 1. “So, the first lap I just tried to close a bit and I tried to set my pace. I was knowing Fabio was the man to beat today.”

Quartararo tried to use the Yamaha’s cornering strength on the last lap through the last sector to set up a pass into the final corner. But he had a moment through Turn 11 and conceded beating the Ducati rider was “not possible” on Sunday.

While Ducati proved victorious at Jerez one year ago, that was down to a dominant Quartararo encountering arm-pump issues and allowing Miller to pick up the pieces. But last Sunday’s Spanish GP was a fair fight between Bagnaia and Quartararo, two riders a cut above the rest on the weekend.

Jerez is a circuit riders know the best and teams have the most data from. Few predicted anyone other than Quartararo waltzing to victory this year. Therefore, the fact Bagnaia has seemingly unlocked the potential of the GP22 “I always knew was there” at a track layout like Jerez is an immensely positive sign for Ducati going forwards.

Bagnaia cannot afford any mistakes however, with his deficit to Quartararo – who is now seven points clear at the top of the standings – still a sizeable 33 points heading to Le Mans.

With the championship picture being so hectic at the start of the season, Jerez felt like a return to normality in some respects. The two riders expected to fight for the championship finally locked horns in a tense battle and were a step ahead of their rivals. The Spanish GP, then, could not only be the day we look back on at the end of the season as when the real Ducati emerged. But, also, perhaps where the real championship battle begun…

Can Bagnaia turn his first win of the season into a title challenge?

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images