Ducati “will never stop” its MotoGP satellite teams beating factory squad
The 2023 season saw the title battle go down to the wire between factory team Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia and Pramac’s Jorge Martin.
Ducati riders locked out the top three in the standings, with eventual champion Bagnaia leading Martin and VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi, while the brand scored 17 grands prix victories out of 20 with six of its representatives.
Towards the end of the season, Ducati repeatedly rejected suggestions it would have to manage the title battle through the use of team orders and insists nothing will change in how it treats all of its riders in 2024.
“It’s very clear. We have eight Ducatis who we treat in an honest way, in what they deserve and it’s written into the contract what they have,” Tardozzi told Autosport at the end of the 2023 season.
“They are able to see all the data of the all the other riders. But we will never, never stop one of the other teams against the factory team.
“They have the right to do the best, they have the right to have all the information to beat us.
“Then it’s up to us to have best riders and the best performance. It’s up to the factory team. Gigi [Dall’Igna, general manager] is Ducati and he has eight possibilities to win.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing
Photo by: MotoGP
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing
“I am [sporting director at] Ducati Lenovo [team], I have two possibilities to win the race. So, it’s up to this team to beat the others.
“But this is Gigi’s mentality, it’s Ducati mentality, so it’s something that pushes us to do better and better and provide better things and provide to the riders the best bikes.
“Martin had no one less bolt than us this year – he had exactly what we have and in exactly the same time.
“We never brought a new part without having the possibility to give the same part to Pramac.”
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Tardozzi added: “We are not scared about our riders and the competition inside Ducati teams, because otherwise we don’t provide factory bikes to Pramac and winning bikes to the other two satellite teams.
“So, we share the data and if we are scared we wouldn’t share the data.
“We give all the updates to the riders who deserve it. So, if we are scared we wouldn’t do this.
“We have a different approach. That means we think that the competition inside of Ducati, which means between the Ducati teams, raises the level inside Ducati.
“We are happy to have this kind of internal competition that lets us grow in data and our engineers are really happy to have eight possibilities with eight riders to see what is happening on the bike.”