While it is true that the pre-season tests, especially those at Sepang and Mandalika, had already suggested that Ducati would not arrive at the opening of the championship as strong as expected, it was not easy to imagine a scenario as adverse as the one we have seen. Sunday in Qatar.
Bastianini took the victory unquestionably in a very fast race, almost 11 seconds faster than the second held in Qatar last year, on a track with much more grip. After staying on Pol Espargaro’s ribs throughout the race, the Gresini Racing rider overtook the Honda rider with four laps to go, with a devastating change of pace that no one was able to counter.
In other circumstances, this result would only have been a source of pride for Ducati, the supplier of the bikes for the team of the unforgettable Fausto. However, the Borgo Panigale builder left Doha with mixed feelings, having achieved something about which Pecco Bagnaia, his spearhead in the fight for the World Championship, had warned for months: the prototype designed for 2022 does not offer the same guarantees as the one who finished last season, an impression that the numbers confirmed in an almost cruel way.
The first Desmosedici GP22 to cross the finish line was that of Johann Zarco, eighth, after overtaking Fabio Quartararo in extremis. Zarco finished 10 “5 seconds behind the winner, a gap that represents an average loss of almost half a second per lap from” Bestia “.
Johann Zarco, Pramac Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Ducati is in a mess that must be resolved and resolved quickly. The problem is knowing which way to go, given the different paths that exist now. In Losail on Thursday, each team had to homologate the type of engine it will use during the year. And the Bolognese manufacturer delivered three different specifications, after Bagnaia opted to take two steps back and return to the base of the 2021 engine, to which some modifications have been applied, as reported by Motorsport.com.
By regulation, Bagnaia’s decision also dragged Jack Miller, and indirectly altered Ducati’s plans, which now will have three development paths to pursue when initially only two were planned. Of the eight Desmosedici that share the grid, three, including Bastianini’s, are the model used last year (GP21). The bikes of Zarco, Jorge Martin and Luca Marini are the most recent version of all (GP22). And now there is also a third model, the hybrid one driven by Bagnaia and Miller.
It is interpreted as normal that Bastianini’s bike, being much closer to its maximum point of evolution, can start the world championship one step ahead of the new ones, which in this phase suffer from youth problems that the passage of kilometers normally corrects. . However, the margin that exists at the moment between the two is very large, and this is not an external impression, but it is the pilots themselves who give voice to it.
Bagnaia and Miller, Ducati’s two main bets to fight for the world crown, spent most of the weekend testing a few things when they should have been concentrating on fine-tuning their prototypes. A real paradox considering that the Italian brand has more bikes on the track than any other rival (one third of the grid), which should allow it to diversify its component analysis work and be more effective in diagnostics.
“Bringing eight bikes is something we’ve done in the past. It’s all a matter of organization, and I think we have the right group in that sense,” said Gigi Dall’Igna, general manager of Ducati Corse, before arriving in Qatar. “It will certainly be important because we will be able to gather more information. And not only for this, but also because we will have the opportunity to test more parts,” warned the engineer, who certainly did not imagine how that advantage could backfire.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team after the crash
Photo by: MotoGP
“We’re just not prepared. I’m not a test driver, I’m here to win, to focus on riding in the best possible way. We had five days to test things, just to avoid having to do it on the race weekend. Before it was the satellite teams. to do that part of the work, “complained Bagnaia, shortly after knocking Jorge Martin out of the race on lap 12, in an accident that was a perfect metaphor for Ducati’s current situation.
“If we continue to work in this way it is clear that it will be more difficult to achieve last year’s results. If we want to win, I have to be able to concentrate on myself”, added the Turin driver, who a few days ago announced the its renewal with Ducati until the end of 2024.
When asked about these statements, Davide Tardozzi, team manager of the team, sang the mea culpa and invited us to analyze what happened. And to do it quickly. “We have to be self-critical. The responsibility of the present moment lies with Ducati, not Pecco, whom we trust 100%. This cannot happen again”, replied the former rider amidst the boxes that were packed in the paddock of Losail.
Bagnaia’s frustration is understandable if we take into account that he has come down from a practically unbeatable prototype, winner of five of the last seven races (four in 2021 and the first in 2022), to get on another one that, in Martin’s words, “it has lost all its strengths”.
Race winner Enea Bastianini, Gresini Racing MotoGP
Photo by: MotoGP
#MotoGP #Ducati #victim #boomerang #effect