It's not every day you see a presentation with three world champions all in the same room. In fact, there are few brands that can boast of being able to do something like this. Indeed, it is very simple to narrow the scope and understand that we are talking about Ducati.
Just like last year, the Borgo Panigale manufacturer has chosen Madonna di Campiglio as the setting for the presentation of its official teams. But if in 2023 it was Pecco Bagnaia and Alvaro Bautista who showed up at the starting line with the number 1 on the front fairing, this year they were also joined by Nicolò Bulega, who will make his debut in the Superbike World Championship after giving the Red his first Supersport crown.
12 months ago the presentation in Trentino had done well, given that both Bagnaia and Bautista confirmed themselves as champions in 2023, so at the gates of Bologna they decided to carry on the tradition also to kick off a season that could prove historic for both.
The Piedmontese was the first to manage to secure a second world championship in the MotoGP era after two sacred monsters like Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez, but no one had ever done it on a Ducati. Therefore, he has already written a page of history, but a hat trick could make him a true two-wheel legend, given that this year an eight-time world champion like # will also be riding a Desmosedici GP 93. But the objective can only be this for a rider who is already the third most successful Italian ever in the premier class.
Together with Pecco, Enea Bastianini took to the stage to unveil the Desmosedici GP24, who on the other hand is called upon for a season of redemption. His first year as an official Ducati rider fell short of expectations due to injuries, which forced him to spectator in eight of the 20 GPs on the calendar. A roadmap that at a certain point had even made people think that the reigning vice-world champion Jorge Martin, later confirmed in Pramac, could have stolen his place. The victory in Malaysia has partly rectified the situation, but it is clear that this year he will have to do more if he wants to secure confirmation.
The CEO Claudio Domenicali and the general director of the racing department, Gigi Dall'Igna, would always like to raise the bar, but this time it won't be easy at all, because Ducati has just come from a real domination: not only has it monopolized the top three positions in the World Championship, with Martin and Marco Bezzecchi behind Pecco, but also achieved 17 victories in long races and 16 in Sprints, leaving only crumbs to his opponents. However, it is a safe bet that this year too the Venetian engineer and his technicians will be able to invent some hyper-competitive solution that will also end up destabilizing the competition, as has already happened for a few years now.
Even for Bautista in Superbike the same applies more or less as for Bagnaia, even if in all likelihood this will be the last year of the career of the rider from Talavera de la Reina, who will certainly want to end on a high note after having already become the most successful of the history of Ducati among the production derivatives. Complicating his life will be the new regulation, which will require him to race with ballast (we're talking about 7 kg) to respect the minimum weight that from this year will take into account the bike and rider. Even without this, however, Bautista is still considered the favorite in the starting blocks.
Bulega, who comes to replace Michael Rinaldi, will not have an easy task to try to keep up with the Spaniard. The rider from Reggio Emilia, however, is already a successful bet for the Borgo Panigale company, which took him on when his Moto2 career was going adrift and in two years led him to become Supersport world champion, with the beauty of 16 seasonal successes. Rightly so, now at the gates of Bologna they have decided to go all-in on Bulega, who certainly will not want to disappoint those who believed in him in the most difficult moment.
The big news this year, however, is the creation of a new department, Ducati Corse Off-Road, which starts with great ambitions and which will bring the red bike onto the Motocross scene. Just look at the names that are part of it to understand that this project is not destined to be a flash in the pan. The role of general manager has in fact been entrusted to Paolo Ciabatti, the brand's historic sporting director, who left MotoGP to embark on this new adventure.
But there is also an even more high-sounding name for motocross lovers, because nine-time world champion Tony Cairoli will be responsible for the development of the new creation from Borgo Panigale, who will be joined by the eight-time Italian champion Alessandro Lupino . Maddii Racing will manage the program on the race fields: the first experience will be in the Italian championship, but then the path is already paved for a landing in the World Championship in 2025. And clearly there was a lot of curiosity to discover the new one up close creature, which until now had only been shown in some teaser images.
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