A Constructors ‘World Championship to defend, a Drivers’ title to conquer: the Ducati is ready for its debut in 2022 on the beloved Qatar track with great and well-founded ambitions. The Borgo Panigale house in 2021 collected seven victories (more than any other house) with three different drivers and has already renewed Francesco Bagnaia’s contract until 2024 to allow the Italian driver to focus exclusively on the World Cup run which will see him opposed to the reigning champion Fabio Quartararo and king Marc Marquez, eager to take back a scepter left in 2020 due to physical problems so serious as to jeopardize the career of the eight-time world champion.
The tests carried out in Sepang and in Indonesia have confronted the Ducati factory team with some youth problems of the new engine, especially as regards the interaction between the engine and the electronic software that manages the delivery of power during the acceleration. In Malaysia, the Ducati engine, especially in the first days of testing, discharged the power too abruptly with consequent skidding of the rear wheel. Francesco Bagnaia stated that in this respect Ducati are still looking for the correct balance: “We have worked really hard on the bike – the words of the rider who grew up in the VR46 riders academy in an interview with the newspaper The Republic – there are very interesting aerodynamic innovations. We still have to understand something about this new engine, find the right balance. Now we are analyzing the data, and from tomorrow we will hit the track with the best package. This new bike looks sweeter ”.
For Pecco and for all the other riders of the VR46 riders academy it will be the first year without Valentino Rossi alongside them on the track. A situation that Bagnaia defines as strange: “Last month in Malaysia, after the quarantine in my room, I went down to the hotel restaurant and his team was at the table: not seeing him made an impression. But we continue to train together at the Ranch, in this period he writes me some messages. From a moral point of view, he remains important to us guys at the Academy: he always knows how to tell you the right coasts in the right moment “.
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