Ducati and Aprilia bosses clash: “Eight bikes? It’s absolutely fair”
Ducati currently have eight bikes on the 2023 grid - factory ri🌱der Francesco Bagnaia is the reigning champion while Mooney VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi leads the MotoGP standings.
Aprilia added RNF, who previously belonged to Yamaha, as a satellite team but still believe thꩲeir Italian rivals have an unfair advantage, with double the quantity of machines at their disposal.
"I think it's absolutely fair in MotoGP," Ducati 🐎Corse general manager Dall'Igna told .&⛄nbsp;
"What we do is allowed by the regulations. Each [team] receives a compensation of £3m from the championship organ🐷iser if it supplies a customer team.
“No subsidies are paid for the other cust♑omer teams. These regulations have existed since the beginning, they are the same for all [teams].
♎“If a private customer team wants to use Ducati bikes, they do it because our bikes are better than certain others. That's my view.
“Weꦜ have free competition. I don't see what's unfair about that. On the contrary, it's totally fair.
“If Aprilia wants to have more bi♑kes on the grid, they c🔯an make an effort to convince more teams.”
Aprilia CEO Rivola had pr🅘eviously called MotoGP a “one-team cup” due to Ducati’s dominance.
He insisted th♏at a “maximum number of teams per manufacturer shou🐲ld be set”.
There is no indication that th🧜e quantity of Ducatis on the grid w💫ill be reduced any time soon.
"We are working to ma💜intain the current situation for next year,” Dall’Igna said.
“From a sporting point of view, it is therefore very important that we suppl♊y and support so𒁃me customer teams.
“ The regulati♏ons look the same for everyone. Honda has also had a lot of customer teams in the past, no one has complained.
“K♚TM or Aprilia can decide to copy our strategy if they want to."
Ja🍃mes was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from America🐟n sports, to football, to F1.
