Ducati confirms that Bagnaia and Miller mount a different engine

The Ducati official team riders, Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller, made their debut this Friday in the MotoGP World Championship with Desmosedici GP22 tracks equipped with a hybrid engine, a version prior to the final engine that Borgo Panigale engineers had designed for the 2022.

As Motorsport.com anticipated this Thursday, during the Malaysian tests, Bagnaia expressed his doubts to Ducati regarding the definitive version of the 2022 engine, assuring that he felt more comfortable with the engine that he had tested in the Jerez tests, an evolution of the 2021 unit.

Ducati took three engines to the Mandalika tests at the disposal of Bagnaia and his teammate Jack Miller , who by regulation must carry the same material, which has pushed the Australian to accept Pecco’s position.

Those three pieces brought to Indonesia were the 2021 engine used last year, the evolution tested in Jerez, in the November test, and the definitive one for 2022. Bagnaia opted for the intermediate solution, less aggressive, and although it is based on the engine from last year, Ducati prefers to list it as a different 2022 spec.

“We have homologated three specifications. A 2021 engine for some of the satellite drivers, and two different versions of the 2022,” explained Paolo Ciabatti , Ducati director after acknowledging that the factory drivers will have a different engine.

Regarding these two engines, the one that will be carried by the official team and the one that will be mounted by the Pramac drivers, Jorge Martín and Johann Zarco, and that of the VR46 Luca Marini, Ciabatti explains the concept.

“It is a kind of hybrid version that the factory riders prefer in terms of power delivery, and the 2022 is the one that we tested in Sepang”, and that the rest of the GP22 bike riders will ride.

“Our drivers, especially Pecco, wanted a slightly smoother engine, so at Mandalika we tested the 2022 with some specs from the previous engine, to make a kind of hybrid version. In the end, that was what was approved for the team. factory”, expanded the director of Ducati.

Although Miller initially expressed his doubts about ruling out the final 2022 engine, he finally accepted the path taken by Bagnaia, not finding, in his opinion, extraordinary differences between the two engines.

Those who have not had the possibility of choosing are the Pramac drivers, Martín and Zarco, nor Marini, from the VR46, who have had to homologate the 2022 engine as the manufacturer did not give them another alternative.

The rest of the Ducati riders, those of Gresini, Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio, as well as Marco Bezzecchi, from the VR46, will continue with the material from last year on board a GP21, as planned.

With this change, a double path of development is now opened in the Reparto Corse de Borgo Panigale , which will have to work on the evolution of a new motorcycle, the GP22, but with two different engines, a situation that puts even more emotion in the race to become, in 2023, the second official factory driver.

Jack Miller, Ducati Team