How Marquez is the only MotoGP rider keeping the ‘old’ Ducati alive

The debate about to what extent the MotoGP riders who started the 2024 season with the latest Ducati specification had an advantage is still alive, although somewhat less than a few months ago when the Borgo Panigale brand had to decide who would partner Francesco Bagnaia in 2025 as second factory rider.

Enea Bastianini’s poor start to the year left Jorge Martin and Marquez as the main candidates to take his place, and in the end, it was the latter who won the battle. According to Ducati, one of the most important reasons for choosing the Catalan, who at that time in Mugello had not yet won a race, was the performance he was able to demonstrate with a 2023 bike which, on paper, is inferior in performance to this year’s prototype.

“The Ducati engineers saw my progression with the 2023 bike; that outweighed the rest,” said Marquez, just after being confirmed as a factory rider for next year. “According to Gigi [Dall’Igna, Ducati’s general manager], the element that tipped the balance was what I saw on the track; my progression and ability to improve.”

Although Dall’Igna himself has acknowledged that the GP24 can indeed be considered a better bike than its predecessor, there are still those who dare to question or relativise it.

“We have definitely improved the GP24 in those aspects where the GP23 was a bit weaker,” agreed Dall’Igna in August during the British Grand Prix, where Ducati introduced the last package of updates before stopping its development to let Bagnaia and Martin play for the title with the bikes they already know. “I have to say that the factory guys have done a really good job,” added Dall’Igna.

A detailed look at the trace left so far by the two models, and a comparison with what happened in last year’s championship, not only supports Dall’Igna’s comments, but practically settles the debate. Especially because of the four riders competing on a GP23, only Marquez has been able to withstand the push from those on the GP24, especially in the second half of the season.

The comparison between the statistics produced by the GP22 in 2023, and those left by the GP23 in 2024, confirms that the leap in quality of the 2024 bike over the 2023 is much greater than the one between the 2022 prototype and the 2023 one.

Last year, among the four riders who competed in the championship with the ‘old’ Ducati (GP22), they scored a total of…