Ducati evaluates an official bike with MotoGP riders at the Suzuka 8 Hours

For the first time in its history, this year Ducati took part in the Suzuka 8 Hours with a Panigale V4 entrusted to Yukio Kagayama’s team, coming close to the podium already on its debut. A third place remained in the hands until half an hour from the end, only to be handed over at the last minute and still finish as the best European brand ahead of the official crew fielded by BMW.

Just as it is customary to say, appetite comes with eating. And Ducati, after having undertaken the new challenge in off-road racing, plans to chase another competition that no European manufacturer has managed to win. Precisely the 8 Hours held on the now legendary Japanese track.

Paolo Ciabatti, now Ducati Off-Road manager, followed the debut of the Italian manufacturer at Suzuka together with Yukio Kagayama’s team. This is why Motorsport.com contacted him again – after having already spoken to us at the end of July – to get updates on Ducati’s project for the famous endurance race which is part of the FIM Endurance category.

“The Suzuka 8 Hours is a special race, and every manufacturer would like to win at least once in its history”, began Ciabatti to Motorsport.com. “Precisely due to its specificity, Ducati had never faced it competitively. This year, for a series of reasons, we managed to find an agreement with the Kagayama team despite it being a team linked to Suzuki, but we know that Suzuki has reduced his commitment in competitions drastically. So we found an agreement to compete in the entire Japanese championship and the Suzuka 8 Hours, keeping in mind that we provide technical support and for the 8 Hours we employed a whole series of engineers, simulations and evaluations. for the team, which however is managed by the Kagayama team. So the choice of drivers, coming to the point, was made by the team”.

Ciabatti had already let Motorsport.com know that Ducati is interested in fielding MotoGP riders such as Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio DI Giannantonio (both have expressed their desire to participate). For this reason, Ducati is considering the opportunity to set up a project that includes an official motorbike, directly managed by the Borgo Panigale team, to be entrusted to MotoGP and, probably, also World Superbike riders among those under contract with the company. meat sauce.

“Given that Ryo Mizuno is one of the fastest riders, with a lot of experience, the team consulted us and, given that the first year would not have been appropriate and that Bagnaia got married that weekend, so he would not have been able to participate, it was premature , because we still had a series of question marks. Because for us it was the first time that a full Superbike Ducati engaged in 8 hours of a race which is an 8-hour sprint race.”

“And so the team told us that having Mizuno, who also set the fastest lap in the race, with experience and having worked on them in the past with Syahrin and Waters having worked on them in the past with Suzuki, this would be the team. I would say that it was a good choice, because we were fighting for third place until half an hour from the end, and we finished in fourth place ahead of the official BMW team, so we were the first European brand at the finish line. Without hypocrisy I can tell you that it remained the bitter taste in the mouth, because when you are third, on the podium, up to half an hour from the end and it doesn’t go…”.

“The project, if it became something managed more directly by Ducati Corse, would obviously not be something that I follow. Also because with the MXGP World Championship in 2025 I will have enough commitments. However, as you were saying, Ducati is very interested. It has had all the necessary feedback to understand where it is important to improve, in order to be able to fight for the podium and victory”.

“There are very fast riders in the Ducati area like Bagnaia, but also Di Giannantonio, who would like to do the Suzuka 8 Hours, and therefore, in my opinion, when Ducati decides to combine Kagayama’s bike with a directly managed bike from Bologna, the choice would fall in that area (MotoGP). Then it’s clear that if Bagnaia and Ducati go to the Suzuka 8 Hours, they go there to aim for victory. Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense.”

Ducati has already moved in time with the aim of collecting data from the Suzuka 8 Hours held a few weeks ago to try to understand the feasibility of the project after having identified some critical issues that will have to be smoothed out – if not eliminated – in the next, possible participation with the official motorbike.

“We learned many things. For example, we have to speed up the pit stops. Because in any case our tank filled more slowly than that of the top teams, plus another series of situations and only by trying to do things seriously do you realize if and where to improve.”

“Having gathered all the information, a few weeks ago there was a meeting with the Australian technician who we sponsored to work with the team thanks to his experience in electronics, we have a series of information that Gigi Dall’Igna, Marco Zambenedetti and that working group will analyze to understand if it is conceivable to resolve the critical issues we saw in the 2024 edition and think about something bigger in 2025.”

“I don’t think a decision has been made, we need to wait for the calendars to see that there is an opportunity for the riders to do at least 2 days of testing and then the race. And therefore we need to understand if the MotoGP and Superbike calendars will have these windows timescales to allow us to evaluate the use of official drivers in a possible participation in the Suzuka 8 Hours in an official manner. I understand that the decision has not yet been made and all the calendars are still missing to be able to have a complete picture of the situation.”

Ciabatti concluded by underlining the various critical issues encountered by Ducati from a technical point of view, but also by all the other teams from an environmental point of view due to the rescheduling of the race, so as not to have it held in conjunction with the opening ceremony of the Games Paris Olympics.

“One of the critical issues of the Suzuka 8 Hours is that this year it was moved forward by a week because it was the start of the Paris Olympics, so it was raced in extreme conditions due to the great heat and humidity. drivers were really very, very physically tested with cramps. Poor Syahrin had to do a double stint because we had to stop for a quick refueling and he reached the finish line in extreme conditions. He was stuck with different cramps hours after the end of the race. So it seems to me that the organizers themselves are considering moving it in the calendar to a period, like September, in which there is less heat and less humidity to avoid the physical stress suffered this year”.