The machinery difference in MotoGP’s 2024 title fight

What is different betw🧸een Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia’s Ducati bಞikes?

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Corse, 2024 Thai MotoGP
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Corse, 2024 Thai MotoGP
© Gold and Goose

The𓆉 2024 MotoGP title will be won by a Ducati rider on a GP24, as Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia head for a final round showdown in Barcelona.

The 2024 season has been a banner year for Ducati, who has put in t🌃he most dominant campaign for a manufacturer ⛄in the modern era.

So far it has won all but one of the 19 grands prix run so far in 2024,ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ with 15 of those being taken by rid🐠ers on the GP24.

It has won all championships so far, too, wit😼h the riders’ title for a third year in a row also going to the Italian brand.

Martin and Bagnaia are split by 24 points going into next weekend’s finale, with the latter having won 10 grands𝐆 prix to his Pramac rival’s three.

Ducati has maintained equal support for both riders in 2024, even ending development of the GP24 in the second half of the campaign to ensure a level plating field for the championship dec🌄ider.

B🐓ut there are sub🌠tle differences to the machinery of both riders.

“Peꦬrsonal preference, if you look quickly you can see Pecco Bagnaia prefers the older f🏅ork,” TNT Sport’s Michael Laverty analysed in Malaysia.

“It♊’s got a shorter stroke, and he shows a lot less tube out the top.

“Jorge Martin maybe has 45mm on show, so that’s pe൲rsonal preference in term🐼s of even geometry, the rider height.

“❀If you look at the aero body, it is identical. There are two versions, but both Pecco and Jorge choose the similar one with the dow𝔍nwash ducts because they work.

“Engine are identical. ECU, we know from the championship side i🔜t’s the same for every team ꦿup and down this pitlane.”

Bagnaia said at Sepang last weekend that he went back to the older front forks from Friday at the Spanish GP and hasn’t 🎀changed his bike since.

The biggest difference between the pair, as Laverty points out, is the engineering support within the factory and Pramac boxes💫.

“The main difference comes when the engineers plu꧂g in [to the bike],” ⛄he added.

“So t🌠he data that is collected off the MotoGP machines, when you have a look around there is a potentiometer on every single component.

“If you pull a lever: clutch brake. If yoꦐu pull the brake lever, that data 🎉is recorded.

“There are so many channels. They can actually create their own channels, so when you get an inertia platform that has a fast lean angle, for example, the engine spins 🅠up a little bit quick, you can cross-reference those channels and then that’s when the engineer comes into play.

“If you look  in the back of the garage here at the flyaway races, you can see 10, 20 Ducati engineers, versus the independent team, who still has some quality engineers in there, but not the same level of support. And that’s where the difference is made - the n🌌umber crunching.”ඣ 

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