Ducati in 2025

Ducati Lenovo may have lostꦓ out on the 2024 title to Jorge Martin but they will field their strongest ever rider line-up this year with six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez joining the team's double champion Francesco Bagnaia.

Ducati's MotoGP history

Renowned for its racing exploits in Superbike, the change in premier-class technical rules from 50🍃0cc two-strokes to 990cc four-strokes prompted Ducati to enter MotoGP in 2003.

Taking on the dominant Japanese manufacturers, Ducati finished on the podium in its debut race and t𓆏ook a first MotoGP victory with Loris Capirossi at ro🎶und six in Catalunya.

A lull followed and Capirossi didn’t put Duc✃ati back on top of the podium until back-to-back wins in late 2005, after an inspired switch from Micheꦓlin to Bridgestone tyres.

Had it not been for a brutal turn 1 clash with team-mate Sete Gibernau at Catalunya, Capirossi and Ducati might have fought for the 2006 title, but had to be content with three wins and third o﷽verall behind👍 Nicky Hayden (Honda) and Valentino Rossi (Yamaha).

The final race of the 2006 season saw Troy Bayliss, Capirossi’s team-mate in 2🌼003-2004, return for a one-off appearance in place of the injured Gibernau at Valencia.

Bayliss, who had just wrapped up his second WorldSBK crown, delivered a memorable performance to become the first rider other than Capirossi to ✨win on a Desmosedici.

2007 began with another Australian on the 🃏topꩲ step of the podium for Ducati as new signing Casey Stoner spectacularly kicked off the new 800cc engine era by blasting to victory in Qatar.

The combination of Ducati’s screamer engine, advanced electronics, Bridgestone tyres and Stoner’s extraordinary talent saw flatten♚ed the Japanese opposition with ten w﷽ins and the factory’s first MotoGP title.

Few imagined it at th💫e t♐ime, but it would take until 2022 for Ducati to regain the riders’ title.

Capirossi left Ducati with one last win, in wet-dry conditions at Motegi 2007, to be replaced by Marco Melandri for 2008. The Italian’s misery on the bike only served to underlineꦗ Stoner’s talent and it ꦑwould take until 2016 for a rider other than Stoner to win on a Desmosedici.

Stoner had long since retired by then, the Australian left frustrated by what he saw as a lack of resౠources for in-season technical development as his results slipped from champion in 2007ꦉ to runner-up in 2008 (6 wins) and then fourth in 2009 (4 wins) and 2010 (3 wins).

Crucially for the Stoner/Ducati relationship, the #27 was perturbed by Ducati’s pursuit of Jorge Lorenzo during 2009, while he sat out some races with si𓃲ckness and fatigue issues, later diagnosed as lactose intolerance.

2009 also saw major⛦ technical changes for the Desmosedici, with its steel trellis frame replace🍨d by a futuristic carbon fibre chassis and swing arm.

Stoner followed Ducati team manager Livio Suppo to Repsol Honda for 2011, but the lo💃ss of the Australian was overshadowed by the arrival of MotoGP icon and Italian national hero Valentino Rossi.

The Doctor had already reached legendary status after walking out o❀f Honda, as a reigning three-time world champion, to bring instant title success to the strugg⭕ling Yamaha project in 2004.

Arriving at Ducati with nine world titles uꦗnder his belt and bringing his full team of mechanics led by Jerry Burgess, Rossi and his crew were confident they could find a way to solve the Desmosedici’s knife-edge handling.

But the carbon🐻 fibre machine had little in common with the Japanese bikes, let alone the difference in engineering cultures, and while Stoner took to the Honda like a duck to water Rossi rarely looked comfortable on the Ducati.

It had seemed incon🅺ceivabl🅷e that Rossi wouldn’t at least win on the bike, but with pressure mounting with each forgettable race weekend, Ducati’s desperation grew.

In an attempt to make the handling of the Desmosedici more familiar, the carbon fibre chassis was replaced by aluminiu﷽m, culminating in the kind💜 of conventional twin-spar frame used by the Japanese bikes for 2012.

But there was to be no miracle cure and Rossi left Ducati for a return to Yamaha having taken just😼 four podiums in two sea👍sons, no race wins and a best of sixth in the world championship.

The aftermath of the failed Rossi era and arrival of new owners Audi cause🍷d major repercussions within Ducati Corse.

Most notably, general manager Filippo Preziosi, the wheelchair-bound des𒁃ign genius behind the Desmosedici from its birth, was replaced by ex-BMW Superbike director Bernhard Gobmeier.

Meanwhile, Andrea Dovizioso took over Rossi’s seat alongside Nicky Hayden, who had taken occasional podiums since replಞacing Melandri in 2🐻009.

2013 was to see Ducati sink to a new MotoGP low by failing to take a single podium, but the factory made a key management signing 🌳towards the end of the year by tempting Gigi Dall’Igna to take over Gobmeier’s role as Ducati Corse General Manager.

Dall'Igna arrived from Aprilia where he had overseen 12🗹5cc, 250cc and World Superbike titles, although he was yet to have a major impact in MotoGP.

That would change at Ducati, where Dall’Igna’s insistence on gathering data from a wide range of riders - and clever exploitation of technical looph𓆏oles - helped the Desmosedici 🐲return to podiums in 2014 and 2015.

Indeed, Ducati kicked off the new aerodynamicꩵ era when winglets appeared on Dovizioso’s bike during the 2015 Qata🐻r pre-season test. The first ride height devices appeared on the Desmosedici during 2018.

A landmark moment arrived at Austria 2016, when Andrea Iannone took the first Ducat💦i victory of the Dall’Igna⛄ era, and the first since Stoner’s departure.

Ducati’s growing momentum and large chequebook helped Dall’Igna tempt Yamaha’s triple world𝄹 champion Jorge Lorenzo to Ducati for 2017. 

But it was Andrea Dovizioso, who took his f♒irst Ducati win in late 2016 and was picked over Iannone as Lorenzo’s team-mate, that would emerge as Dall’Igna’s first MotoGP title contender.

Dovi, whose career had often been spent in the shadows of team-mates such as Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, rose spectacularly to the challenge of Lorenzo. While the Spaniard was left with occasional podiums in 2017, Dovizioso romped to six wins and fought Marc Marquez for the title until the final roun🎐d.

Th🦋e Italian again repelled Lorenzo in 2018 on his way to runner-up behind Marquez, then made it three vice championships in a row alon𒀰gside Danilo Petrucci in 2019.

But Dovizioso’s race wins were decreasing each season and tensions with Dall’Igna we🧜re growing behind the scenꦰes.

Dovi and Ducati were the clear favourites on pa꧅per when Marquez was injured at the start of 2020, but the #4 managed♏ just one win and, with Ducati dithering over a contract renewal, took matters into his own hands by announcing he’d called off negotiations and was leaving the team at the end of 2021.

Confident in the bike’s ability, Dall’Igna responded by betting o🐻n young talent already inside Ducati rather than hunting for established stars, with Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia both promoted from the satellite Pramac team.

Miller was the more experienced and took the early in♐itiative with back-to-back wins at the start of the European season in 2021. But Bagnaia put together a searing end to the year with four wins and a podium from the final six races to keep pressure on eventual champion Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha).

After a slow start to 2022, Bagnaia overcame a huge points deficit to snatch the title from Quartararཧo and finally hand Ducati and Dall’Igna the world championship they had been chasing since Stoner in 2007.

A bike once famous for difficulty in turning had by now become the undisputed leading MotoGP machinꦕe in terms of both performance and grid numbers (eight)🐬, sweeping the top three places in the 2023 standings courtesy of Bagnaia, Pramac’s Jorge Martin and VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi.

Six 🐈of the Ducati riders won Grand Prix races during the season, with all eight standing on the podium.

Ducati Lenovo started the 2024 MotoGP season with reigning double champ꧙ion Bagnaia looking to join only Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez in winning three suc𒈔cessive titles during the modern four-stroke era (since 2002).

Ducati duly reached new heigh𝓰ts of MotoGP dominance in 2024, winning all but one grand prix, headlined by eleven victories for Bagnaia. It was more wins than all other riders combined and towered over the three GP victories for Pramac rival Jorge Martin. 

But Bagnaia’s title ho𒈔pes were sunk by eight DNFs, with Martin securing the crown at the season finaleꦯ.

Enea Bastianini remained al♋ongside Bagnaia for a second term but, despite improved perℱformances, it was soon clear he would be replaced by either Martin or Marc Marquez.

Martin was leading the world championship coming into Mugello, where the decision was to be made, but it was M🧜arquez - already head and sh𒉰oulders clear of the other GP23 riders - who got the nod, sending Martin into the arms of Aprilia for 2025.