Ducati has worked hard for its 2022 season, the desmodromic engine having gained power, as announced by Gigi Dall'Igna, while retaining the riding pleasure of their old engine, but the Bologna engineers have also worked on the curve entries, but also aerodynamics. But so far, Ducati has had a complicated 2022. What really happened to Ducati in Qatar initially seemed to be a mystery, much speculation arose around the fact that the GP22 was clearly not up to the expectations of the engineers at Borgo Panigale. As they sought to understand their GP22, over the course of the races the results are there, but even though many believe that Ducati has the best bike on the grid, has 11 rounds of the World Championship been too long for understand the Bologna missile?
Ducati started the 2022 season with more trepidation than they had finished the 2021 season. After the technical teams worked all winter to evolve the GP21, the riders discovered the GP22 on the track during the Sepang test. At that point, the Borgo Panigale factory teams found that some of the parts they had previously tried with their GP21 at the end of last season were not working as they wanted.
This season, Ducati has engine problems, not power but choice: true to their reputation, the Bologna technical teams have found even more power for the 2022 engine, but managing this power and being able to use it in a race lasting 40 minutes is something easier said than done.
One of these parts was the new exhaust – nicknamed Didjeridoo by Jack Miller – which did not go unnoticed during the Jerez tests, and which reminds us of the one that Yamaha tested in 2020 at Misano. Honda had also tested this solution in 2017. After trying it, everyone found that it made the already endemic engine of the Ducati a little more difficult to control and therefore, all the riders abandoned it and returned to the shorter lower exhaust to start the season. This does not seem to bring the expected improvements for the moment.
But most importantly, Ducati factory riders Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller reverted to a slightly older engine instead of the latest 2022 engine specification that Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco continued to use.
For 2022, one of the biggest improvements Ducati made to their motorcycle was aerodynamics. Throughout 2021, they struggled with corner entry agility on their prototype. The wings of the 2021 version, seen above, were very large and created enormous downforce but also, due to their shape, the Ducati encountered difficulties entering corners, and this is what they have focused on to try to make improvements for 2022.
Here are the fins for the 2022 version: The upper part is slightly smaller than the 2021 version, but still very large overall. However, the key change was to the lower sidepod fin. Its lower half angles inward to connect to the fairing, compared to the 2021 sidepod fin which went straight down then underwent a right angle to connect to the fairing.
It appears that it is this change that has helped Ducati in corner entries, allowing the red missile to achieve a smoother transition from full downforce when the bike is in a straight line to an effective loss of that downforce when it is passes at a high tilt angle.
For 2022, Ducati was once again the brand to bring many innovations, notably thanks to the wizard Luigi Dall'Igna. Because indeed, during the official test in Sepang, Ducati revealed to its competitors that its technical teams had found a new way to push the limits of vehicle dynamics. Already in the past, the Borgo Panigale teams were the first to introduce spoilers, rear swingarm spoiler, Holeshot Device and Ride Height Device at the rear. The question for this new season was therefore what Gigi Dall'Igna and her team of engineers had imagined this time.
Last year, the Ride Height Device appeared on all machines, an attitude corrector which has the same role as the ailerons: it physically reduces wheelings, so that the anti-wheeling managed by the ECU does not does not need to take office. And that's where it comes in handy, because when it does, it decreases the torque available to the rear wheel, which hurts acceleration.
The answer to this also lies at the front of the GP22, not just at the rear. Ducati has installed a new Holeshot Device at the front of the Desmosedici, which appears to double as a front Ride Height Device. Where the old and simple Holeshot Device consisted of a simple latch and was only usable during the start phase, the new system is much more sophisticated and is used in the curve entry phases, but also when exiting the curve.
We noticed early on that their twin lever configuration, arranged on the upper triple clamp, had changed on the factory machines. Here we see the 2021 configuration, which involved two identical levers: one for the front Holeshot Device and one for the rear Holeshot Device. This has therefore changed for 2022, but above all we need to understand why they made this modification or if it simply made the lever easier to use.
Here is the 2022 version, with the modification made for 2022. Looking more closely, there is still one lever, but the second has transformed into a small lever which is located just in front of the upper triple clamp.
It turns out that this is more than just a change to the lever itself and was actually the first look at the complete new Ride Height Device system before that the Italians developed.
And here is this famous front Ride Height Device system, visible in the photo above. The hydraulic cylinder sits in front of the right fork tube and has a rod that extends to the bottom of the fork where it is attached. Ducati riders all tested it during pre-season tests at Sepang, and we notably saw how much this allowed Michele Pirro to lower the front end when exiting the corner.
To do this, the rider activates the system when entering the corner, then when the fork is compressed in the middle of the corner, this prevents it from relaxing upon exiting the corner. In doing so, this device lowers the motorcycle's center of gravity, which helps reduce wheelies. But while all Ducati riders have tried it, only Johann Zarco chose to use it throughout the season, with other riders saying they didn't like the feeling it gave when they came into the next corner and the front end was really low when braking. All drivers with a GP22 are equipped with this system, but only the French driver uses it.
For comparison, here is the configuration of the GP21. We can see that the cylinder and stem protruding from it are not present on the 2021 prototype and that instead, the Holeshot Device is located at the bottom of the fork tube.
At the Official Test in Barcelona, Ducati presented a first glimpse of an aerodynamic evolution for its GP22. The fins themselves hadn't changed, it was in fact the front fairing itself that had been redesigned: it was slightly larger and a little more imposing. It seems that this makes it easier for the pilot to cut through the air.
But that's not all: we got a glimpse of 2023 during this Catalan test. Johann Zarco tested this chassis and it's really interesting: it has large areas of material cut into the frame around the swingarm pivot. It's a fairly radical solution and Johann Zarco has remained quite discreet about Ducati's objective for these modifications, but he still revealed that it was a development element for the 2023 prototype.
But even though Ducati is already working towards 2023, we are only halfway through the season and the technical teams still have a lot of work to do in 2022. Their bike is incredible and many think it is the benchmark bike on the grid, but the season hasn't been as easy for them as they hoped.
The early season difficulties were caused by their dilemma over choosing engine technical specifications for the year, then it took a few races for the drivers to really get comfortable. On top of that, we still saw some unusual errors from Pecco Bagnaia, who is already 66 points behind the World Championship leader at the summer break, this leaves little room for error, although mathematically, everything remains possible!
Photos: Dorna Sports
