Ducati’s GP agony ends
HOW DUCATI ENDED 15 YEARS OF MOTOGP HURT
How come Ducati spent so long in the MotoGP wilderness? This is the year-by-year, blow-by-blow inside story of how the once imperious Italian factory went from hero in 2007 to zero, for 15 long years, and then back to top spot (eventually) in 2022
Ducati won its first MotoGP championship just five years after entering the big-bore four-stroke class in 2003. Casey Stoner’s 2007 title suggested many more successes to come but Ducati had to wait 15 years before adding another MotoGP Championship gong to its trophy cabinet.
WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG?
Ducati didn’t win the 2007 crown because it built a brilliant motorcycle but because it had a genius rider onboard, lots of horsepower, and tailormade Bridgestone tyres – particularly its superb front slick. Things started going wrong when MotoGP switched to spec tyres in 2009, so Bridgestone had to make one type of tyre to fit every motorcycle and the Desmosedici was very different from the other bikes. Things got worse when Stoner left at the end of 2010. It was five and a half long frustrating years before Ducati even won another MotoGP race.
Only at the end of 2013 did Ducati start digging itself out of this very deep hole when it stole brilliant engineer Gigi Dall’Igna from Aprilia. Step by step Dall’Igna fixed the Desmosedici, firstly via a complete redesign, then by chipping away at the bike’s faults, while maintaining its strengths.
Dall’Igna’s fixes were radical. “When your riders arrive 30 seconds behind the winner you have to take risks, you cannot be conservative,” he says.
His creativity and bold reading of the rulebook produced all kinds of innovations that changed the face of MotoGP: downforce aero, mass dampers, holeshot devices, shapeshifters, Formula 1-style diffusers, and so on.
However, his final fix was human: honing the skills of Pecco Bagnaia from 2019. Dall’Igna knew he needed a fast-learning youngster he could mould into the perfect Desmosedici rider.
Bagnaia’s 2022 title marked Ducati’s 20th year in MotoGP and the 50th anniversary of its first MotoGP podium, with the short-lived 500cc V-twin in 1972.
2007 STONER AND GP7 RULE MOTOGP
11 wins (10 Stoner, 1 Loris Capirossi)
MotoGP switched from 1000cc engines to 800s in 2007, to slow the bikes down. It didn’t really work. The 800s were a bit slower on the straights but faster around the corners. The smaller engines were also peakier and trickier to ride, but this didn’t bother former dirt-tracker Stoner, wh
