It was in the air since the first day of testing in Sepang and it is now official, at the end of the test in Buriram: Ducati will keep its 2024 engine for the 2025 and 2026 MotoGP seasons.
With the imposed freeze on their engines for the next two seasons, the men from Borgo Panigale had no room for error. They had to provide a high-performance and reliable engine to the three drivers who this year have a Desmosedici GP25, Francesco Bagnaia, Marc Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio.
However, from the first tests at Sepang, the feedback was mixed, highlighting an improvement in acceleration but more difficult behavior under braking, and Francis Bagnaia did not hide it : " The power delivery is very smooth and gives our engineers many ideas for improvement. We like it and it is the first time that a new engine is so smooth under acceleration. But under braking, the GP25 is still behind the GP24.
As the days go by, Davide Tardozzi then distilled his personal feeling by evoking the possibility of keeping the 2024 engine on the GP25, while sheltering behind Luigi Dall'Igna, to whom the final decision was made;
This morning, it is again through the voice of the Team Manager, at the microphone of Jack Appleyard for the official site MotoGP.com, that we learned that the decision was now ratified, and will therefore be final for the next two years after the homologation on Thursday of the Grand Prix of Thailand.
“The decision has been made, and the engine for the 2025 and 26 seasons will be the 24, so as I said yesterday, Gigi doesn’t want to take any risks. It will be a big effort for the guys at home who will build engines for the other three drivers for the first race. But if Gigi has made this decision, I think we have this leeway.”
2024 engine, therefore, but also chassis and aerodynamics of the same ilk, at least at the start of the year...
"It's a real possibility, I think, that the final decision on the fairing and the chassis will be made tonight, but it's a real possibility, and I think we'll postpone, after we freeze the engine, we'll postpone to the Jerez test the other new things that we have here, that we'd like to test again."
So what are the real new features of the GP25?
"There are things that are electronics and suspension. Those are the 2025 parts that are on the bike, at the moment."
It seems very difficult to improve the Ducati GP24, which could be used by its rivals to reduce the gap between them....
MotoGP – Buriram Test – Day 2 Standings:
Ranking : MotoGP.com
Davide Tardozzi engine 2024
