Fortunes in MotoGP can change quickly. Before the opening weekend of the 2022 MotoGP season, Pecco Bagnaia was the most racer to win the title, the Ducati GP22 being the hottest motorcycle to have.
The question is not whether a Ducati will win one of the early races, but which, and ultimately, how many Ducatis will step onto their podium.
That prediction turned out to be correct, but not in the way the people who made the prediction did. Enea Bastianini made an outstanding run in Qatar to win the first race of 2022, and the first race for the Gresini team since Toni Elias returned to Estoril in 2006.
As expected, a Ducati stood at the top of the podium. Only a satellite racer on an old bike, Bastianini rides a Ducati GP21.
The riders on the GP22 had a miserable night. Jack Miller was forced to retire when the electronics on his bike got confused about where the time loop was and started using the wrong power maps.
Pecco Bagnaia lost face in Round 1 when he was trying to overtake Jorge Martin, the Lenovo factory racer taking down the Pramac satellite.
Johann Zarco caught Fabio Quartararo struggling on his way to the checkered flag in the final lap, for a mediocre 8th place. And Luca Marini battled his bike home with a small score in 13th place.
The results were doubly disappointing because the qualifiers were so promising. Jorge Martin took pole on his Pramac bike, Jack Miller was at the top of the second row in fourth, and Pecco Bagnaia’s ninth on the grid let many people down, the Italian complained. about spending too much time checking in during a workout.
Where did Ducati go wrong? The problem is presented in stark contrast by viewing the race start from the helicopter view.
While Hondas, KTMs, Suzukis jump the line, Ducatis are nowhere. The GP22 is sluggish off the road and completely lacking in drive compared to other bikes.
The lack of acceleration has caused the latest version of the Ducati Desmosedici to suffer from the first corner. Jorge Martin made it through the qualifiers extremely well, but entered Round 1 down to 6th. Jack Miller dropped from 4th to 8th, while Lenovo Ducati teammate Pecco Bagnaia dropped from 9th to 15th.
Stepping back further, Johann Zarco dropped from 13th to 16th, while Luca Marini, who had qualified in 17th, lost two places to enter Round 1 of 19.
The riders of a Ducati GP22 lost an average of four places in just the first corner. They went from the front of the caravan to the traffic jam.
Contrast with Hondas, for example. Marc Marquez moved up from 3rd on the grid to enter Round 1 in first place, although he then ran wide and let Repsol Honda teammate Pol Espargaro take the lead.
Espargaro started in 6th place, and got close to Round 1 in turn 2. Stepping back further, Takaaki Nakagami started 16th and overcame a series of riders to enter Round 12, while his LCR teammate jumped. from 18th to 14th. Where Ducatis had lost four spots in the first place, Hondas had found them.
The problem is also limited to racers on GP22. Enea Bastianini, the only rookie on the Ducati GP21, had a great start from the front row, entering Round 1 just behind Hondas of Espargaro and Marquez. The GP21 jumped out of the line, where the GP22 seemed to bog down and go backwards.
Why does the GP22 start up so poorly? The most obvious culprit has to be the most significant change to the bike since last year: the front ride height gauge.
The locking system of the device is different, the pin has been moved to accommodate the front lowering cylinder. But with Johann Zarco having trouble locking the front gear on the grid, it doesn’t appear that this is the cause.
More worrisome is that the Ducati seemed to lose its acceleration after the initial rush.
As their rivals sped up as they shifted second, third and fourth, the Ducatis seemed to stall. That extra powertrain when they hit peak power is lacking, especially for Ducati.
Drive to survive
That lack of acceleration was largely alleviated once the race started. But even then, Ducati’s steering is pretty lackluster.
Observation of the bikes going straight ahead through the helicopter scene shows that Jorge Martin has no place in front of Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia RS-GP, and the other Ducatis in the back are in a similar situation.
Ducati has been slow to create a slightly down-front head section, which is usually the point where the bike is at its strongest.
Is this a problem with the engine? Given that factory riders were using an upgraded version of the GP21 engine and Pramac’s riders using a GP22 engine were rejected by the factory team, it seems likely that the problem lies in the appearance changes. type of vehicle and the electronic equipment being used. The lack of a base setting is back to their detriment.
That’s where Pecco Bagnaia’s complaints make sense. “If you look, you’ll see all the new Ducatis have gotten off to a bad start,” said the Italian after the race. “We lost a lot of positions. I was 16th in Round 3. So it certainly wasn’t the best start, then I started pushing hard to recover positions. ”
But too much time testing new parts and lack of setup time cost Ducati dearly, Bagnaia felt. “We finished our work in FP3, and this is impossible for me, it’s not great. My feelings went back to FP4, but only because we decided [on bike setting]. ”
“So from that point on we never touched the bike again, until this morning when I was riding and I felt that I was not ready for the race. Because I’m a bit faster, but the electronics and the bike’s setup aren’t good for the grip and for the track. So we did something for the race, but we fell behind.”
Ducati’s problems sound fixable, but they will take time. Preferably one track is a known quantity, but the next three circuits are all something out of the ordinary.
MotoGP only saw Mandalika at the test a month ago, and the track has been partially reset since then. Next is Argentina, a circuit that is rarely used and tends to pick up dust and dirt on day one.
Then Austin, once again has been partially recreated and has a unique layout. When you’re looking for a base setup, you want as few variables as possible, but the beginning of this section is filled with wildcards.
Ducati is still on paper as the factory in the strongest position to win this year’s championship. But they made the job a lot harder for themselves due to the ambitions they had.
Photo: Ducati Corse
