Ducati is betting on using the same engine base that has been sweeping MotoGP since 2024, extending its useful life until the introduction of the new technical regulations in 2027.
When Marc Marquez arrived in the official Ducati garage at the Valencia test in November 2024 to compare the GP24 and GP25, he understood that the difference between the prototypes he was testing and the GP23 he raced at Gresini the same year was huge. But neither the Spaniard nor his team-mate Francesco Bagnaia ended up being categorical when it came to opting for the 2024-championship-winning bike or the ’25.
“Both riders agree in their comments,” was the official version, endorsed by the riders themselves in their statements, giving meaning to the manufacturer’s assertion that “the engine was almost the same.”
In its first year, the GP24s dominated the championship. Bagnaia won 11 of the 20 grands prix and scored five additional wins in sprint races, Jorge Martin won the world championship, adding three Sunday wins and seven on Saturday, while Enea Bastianini completed the dominance with two race victories and two other wins in sprints. Marc Marquez, with Gresini’s GP23, and Maverick Vinales, with the Aprilia, were the only other riders to win a grand prix in 2024.
The step from the 2023 engine to the 2024 one was the great leap for the Desmosedici, the crowning work of Borgo Panigale’s chief engineer Gigi Dall’Igna, and despite the ambiguous statements throughout this time regarding the engines, the manufacturer has clarified that it has always been working around that base power unit since then.
In addition, after it was made official in May 2024 that MotoGP was going to introduce a new technical regulation from 2027, Ducati understood that, having an almost ‘invincible’ engine, it did not make much sense to build a new one starting from zero for 2025. And even less so with the engines frozen for 2026 for all manufacturers, except Yamaha.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Hazrin Yeob Men Shah / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
“This year’s engine is more than 90% identical to last year’s and two years ago,” the Italian manufacturer spokesperson explained to Autosport.
The remaining 10% corresponds to external, surrounding parts that are not subject to the engine freeze. “The engines are almost the same, they carry the same parts; the only changes there are, from one year to another, refer to the material of some element, seeking greater reliability,” it added.
Riders tight-lipped about engine spec
At the first pre-season test in Valencia last November, Alex Marquez stepped off the GP24 to ride what was theoretically the latest-spec Desmosedici, the same one Marc Marquez and Bagnaia had in their garage. The Gresini rider, who had just finished runner-up in the standings, did not reveal which engine he had been riding with.
“I felt good with this ‘different’ bike, I don’t want to give it a name, whether it is GP25, GP26 or whatever, it is simply different. I felt good, and that is the positive,” admitted the Catalan, as soon as he got off the bike.
After this month’s Sepang test, the younger Marquez continued speaking about aerodynamics tests and set-up.
“In pre-season there are many things to test, Gigi comes more to the box, I was the first to mount the new aerodynamics,” he revealed last week.
Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Mohd Rasfan – AFP – Getty Images
On the last day of the Sepang test, after a sprint simulation in which he was the fastest, Marquez again insisted on aerodynamic matters, without mentioning the engine.
“I still have not decided on the aerodynamics, but I felt more comfortable with last year’s. The potential is similar; everything depends on the characteristics of each track,” he said.
Neither Marc Marquez nor Bagnaia spoke about the engine during the Sepang tests either; they limited themselves to commenting on the tests of the new aerodynamics and, in the Italian’s case, the good feelings that he did not find last year.
Protecting Bagnaia and the business
However much Ducati now admits that it has kept the same engine in its MotoGP prototype since 2024, it is surprising that throughout last season the Italian manufacturer did not settle the rumours and speculation about whether the 2025 engine that Marc Marquez and Bagnaia were using was worse than Alex Marquez’s 2024 unit.
“Ducati’s priority was always to work so that Pecco could recover his best level, and that included maintaining an environment as calm as possible around him,” the sources point out, implying that making public that the Bagnaia and Alex Marquez were racing an almost identical bike would have sunk the Italian even further.
In addition, a crucial aspect must be taken into account: the commercial one. Ducati sells the bikes to the satellite teams, charging a lower price for the previous year’s model and double that for the latest specification.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Hence, the GP nomenclature and the year of the bikes acquires value when it comes to Ducati charging Gresini and VR46 for the supply of latest-spec bikes for Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio respectively.
The official position is that this year, all Ducati riders will carry an almost identical engine with the 2024 base. From there, it will be the manufacturer who decides which aerodynamics, chassis and swingarm each one carries depending on whether it is a GP25 or a GP26.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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