The Gresini team announces it: it will not bother with preliminaries as soon as the 2024 hostilities begin in Qatar in MotoGP. And for good reason: with a Ducati from last year, experience has shown that you have to mark your entry territory before the latest opus takes its cruising speed and proves faster than its elder. The fact remains that with Marc Marquez on top, starting off on the right foot could well mean taking an option for the title from the outset...
The team Gresini, through the voice of the team manager Michele Masini has announced its battle plan for the approaching MotoGP season and it is a blitzkrieg. It will indeed be a question of making an impression and the major entry points. On crash.net we read of him thus: “ I don't know what the gap will be between the GP24 and the GP23, but we must achieve the maximum with what we have. Of course, we start with already a year of data so it will be crucial for us to be at our best from the first race ».
Experience proves this aggressiveness at the outset. Since the passage ofAprilia à Ducati in 2022, the first rounds of the season were successful for Gresini. Enea Bastianini took victory on his debut with the team at the 2022 Qatar opener, one of three wins from the first seven races. Replacing Alex Marquez then scored a maiden podium in just his second Grand Prix for the team, in Argentina last year.
Having a year-old bike means the opening rounds of this season could offer some of his best chances for success. While Gresini et VR46 can rely on the configuration data used by last year's factory drivers to start, the official teams will start the year with new, unknown parts. But once these new parts are better understood and as other developments come, year-old drivers will face a larger performance gap.
Team Gresini: “ we will compete with the 2023 world champion motorcycle »
Si Marc Marquez feels good about himself Ducati from the first laps of the return to MotoGP which will be marked by the Sepang tests, we can bet on a thunderous start which will place the eight-time World Champion in the orbit of a ninth crown. And all the more so since the fourth round of the calendar will be none other than the Grand Prix of the Americas in mid-April, on a track ofAustin where he has only been defeated on two occasions since 2013.
At the same time, the same Masini does not fear that the new restrictions imposed on Ducati by the new system of concession points are harming the Italian factory too much: “ we will compete with the 2023 world champion motorcycle ", did he declare. “ I know that new concessions are a difficult issue to deal with and, of course, I don't really like it, because I think Ducati engineers deserve a gold medal for their work ».
« But we have to see. Of course, Ducati will work hard again, because even when you win the championship you should never rest and continue to develop the bike. So I trust the Ducati engineers to continue manufacturing more and more efficient motorcycles ". Before finding themselves at the top of the rankings, the team Gresini has already positioned itself as a leader by being the first MotoGP team to unveil its 2024 racing livery, the saturday january 20.
