MotoGP: Ducati’s Luigi “Gigi” Daleigna says 2025 is “a completely new book…” – Roadracing World Magazine

In the year During the 2024 season-ending test at the Séctor de Barcelona-Catalunya, Ducati Corse general manager Luigi “Gigi” Daleignan met with members of the international media covering MotoGP. Engineer of the fastest road racing motorcycles in historySee footnote), Dall’Igna spoke about the machines, challenges and riders of the 2025 season.

While the performance of the GP24 is a significant step up from last year’s model, Dalley doesn’t think there’s a similar jump between the GP24 and GP25, so such a leap forward won’t be necessary.

In earlier seasons, it may take some time for the new factory Ducatis to improve to a level that was consistently better than the Desmosedici of a year ago. In 2024, it was clear from the start that the GP24 was too fast.

Ene Bastianini, Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia won 10 of the first 11 races in GP24. Eight-time world champion Marc Marquez took GP23 to the top of the podium and no other GP23 rider has won the race.

“Honestly, 2025 is not a step at this point. At the moment, the level of GP24 is very high and if you introduce too many differences between the two bikes, you have to take some risks. At the moment, I don’t think it’s necessary.” said Daleyna.

“I think we need to improve the speed of the bike a little bit on the straight because I think some of our competitors are stronger than us at that point. And I want to improve the speed a little bit in the middle of the corner.

One of the areas where the GP24 excels is in harnessing the new-for-2024 Michelin rear suspension to its ultimate performance potential. Riders on other brands said that the Ducati riders were faster on the new tires and could save the tire more during the race. Dall’Igna, not surprisingly, said that his team’s efforts are not focused on improving that area.

“I think we can improve (tyre protection) a little bit, but it’s not a real problem at the moment. I think we have an advantage compared to others. It’s not what we want,” said Dalleyna. When asked why the GP24 uses the new rear tire better than the GP23, Daleigna couldn’t reveal the secret to its rivals’ performance. “It’s hard to describe, you know. It’s actually not difficult, but I can’t,” he said and started laughing out loud.

Ducati is focused on improving braking performance with the GP25, Dall’Igna said.

“The bike’s point and braking stability is one of the keys, because it’s very difficult to overtake the others. So you have to have this on the bike,” Bagnaia said after the test. He said it was much better at the level.

In the year By 2025, Ducati will drop from eight to six bikes on the grid and from four to three latest spec machines. Ducati has become profitable by having more bikes on the track, as the company can gather more data to fine-tune the appearance of all motorcycles. So critical that when rumors spread that Ducati could only have three GP25s on the grid at the Sachsenring round, Bagnaia said he was worried and would be happier with four factory spec machines in the field. Bagnaia’s comments indicate how critical data collection is in MotoGP – when was the last time a racer on a title-winning bike wanted to share that equipment with more riders, not less?

Is downsizing a concern for Ducati?

“Honestly, no,” said Dale. “I think the real problem (in 2025) is that the other manufacturers have better drivers. Because in the past you will see some bikes, for example, the Aprilia, they make a step from two bikes to four. The results were more or less the same. So I don’t think having six bikes with only six riders on the grid will be a real problem for us. The real problem is that (2024 MotoGP World Champion Jorge) Martin is going to another company, and to Enea (Bastianini, seven-time race winner). I think that’s the difference between 2024 and 2025.

“From a financial point of view, this is the best solution. Having three (GP25) bikes is simply better from an economics point of view. From a technical point of view, it makes no sense to have four factory bikes instead of three.”

Dall’Igna said he and the rest of Ducati’s management knew there was every chance they could lose Martin after 2024, and that if they didn’t give him a place there was a chance he would take the title elsewhere. Factory group. After all, Martin has been overlooked for the factory Ducati ride before – Bastianini got his place, he didn’t. And other teams approached Martin with offers. But Ducati still promoted Marquez to the factory team, setting off a chain reaction that saw Martin sign with Aprilia, Bastianini switch to KTM and Ducati’s satellite Pramac Racing team switch to Yamaha.

After working with Márquez for a year, Daligna said introducing the eight-time world champion to the factory Ducati team was the best move Ducati could have made.

“When I made this decision, we certainly thought about it a lot. We also thought that Martin could win the championship this year. This is something that we had to evaluate, and we took the decision. I will not change my mind at the moment, and I am convinced that we have the best solution,” said Dali Igna.

In the year In early 2024, Ducati signed Moto2 standout Fermin Aldeguer to a MotoGP contract for 2025 and later assigned him a place in the Gresini Racing Team. Aldeguer then suffered through an underwhelming Moto2 season, crashing frequently, winning just three races and finishing fifth in the overall standings. He said he still stands by the decision to sign Aldeguer, but the young rider has some work to do.

He is one of MotoGP’s young talents. I am very happy to have you in one of our groups. He has a lot of good stuff – and some things he needs to develop and understand better. “I think we can help him do that,” Daleigna said. “I’m sure he’ll be fighting for the championship in two years.”

Finally, Dale Igna reminded everyone that past results are no guarantee of future performance. After a year like 2024, with 19 wins in 20 starts, Ducati is right to look for small performance gains that don’t come at the expense of performance elsewhere. “But to win in MotoGP you always have to look for more performance,” he said.

“The new season is a completely new book. A manufacturer in trouble can jump in front. You never know. You have to focus on the problems you have to solve and try to develop the bike as much as possible. This is our job and this is what we have to do.”

Footnote: KTM’s RC16 set a 0.501 mph higher speed at Mugello, 227.483 mph to Ducati Desmosedici’s 226.676 mph. But of the 18 circuits listed on the MotoGP.com website, the Ducati Desmosedici GP24 holds the lap record at 12, while the GP23 holds the outright lap record at the other.