In view of the final result of the 2022 season, everything seems to be going in the best of all possible worlds for a Ducati factory which has all the cards in hand to establish lasting domination in MotoGP. The bike is formidable, the technical choices so relevant that they have destabilized the competition who saw nothing coming and are therefore rowing to catch up, while a strong contingent of very good riders has been brought together to serve the cause. All the credit goes to competition boss Gigi Dall'Igna. But for an insider like veteran mechanic Ramon Forcada, the story is not so clear…
No one will dispute the great success of Ducati during the 2022 MotoGP season, and in case of doubt, all you have to do is remember the figures which marked the forced march of the Red Army towards the world title. Sure, but Ramón Forcada, in comments read on motorcylesports reminds us that everything was not so simple. An analysis which even redefines the hierarchy of merits within the staff Ducati at the time of reckoning.
The illustrious chief engineer first refreshes our memory: “ if Ducati had continued the momentum of the first five races, they would not have won any championships. So Ducati had to change radically in the middle of the season and say: “some people test, others take this bike and this one will win races”. Because at the beginning everyone tested, they brought 20 things, ten didn't work and at the end they arrived at the race and everything was fine. But which tire they were going to race with, they didn't know. not because they had tested the spoiler, the starting aid and everything else ».
Ramon Forcada: “ Pecco Bagnaia said at Ducati: it brings us nothing and distracts us from what we are doing«
He adds : " it was when Ducati said “now we are going to fight for the world championship” that they won four races in a row, no one else did, they were on the podium and they have the title and it's very good ". Certainly, but the architect of this saving turnaround is not who we think. Ramon Forcada identifies it as follows: “ I'm not in the Ducati box, but it seems to me that it's more the management of Davide Tardozzi than that of Gigi Dall'Igna which made it possible to say: “look, this one, among the seven others, he is going to win the world championship”. And they did that in the middle of the season, they didn't do it at the beginning. At the start of the season, Pecco also had a different engine, different suspension and the front leveling device which he removed because he said: "It doesn't do us anything and distracts us from what we do " ».
A reflection which certainly does not change history, but presents it differently as it would reveal a balance of forces within the staff of Borgo Panigale which is not exactly the one which is officially presented to us. We will see in 2023 what will happen when Pecco Bagnaia et Enea Bastianini will begin their collaboration in the same box.
