Ducati is under attack from all five manufacturers in the MotoGP paddock. As confirmed by the first press conference of the year, the Borgo Panigale factory is in the spotlight after the evolution of the front holeshot in the world championship prototypes.
During the media meeting, several pilots showed their discontent about the device. The reasons given by the competition are related to safety and the costs that could be generated by developing a system capable of lowering the motorcycle in motion also from the front.
The other five brands joined forces, announcing their intention to apply to the Grand Prix Commission for a regulatory change aimed at banning the front lowering device.
However, according to the team, this is just an attempt to “deny Ducati a technological advantage” that it has built by always working within the limits imposed by the rules, according to sporting director Paolo Ciabatti.
“It is a solution that we worked on last year, within the regulations. We are sorry to see that the reaction of the rest of the manufacturers to yet another Ducati innovation is to try to change the regulations to prohibit it,” Ciabatti told Sky Sport MotoGP HD microphones. .
“The request from the manufacturers, who are five against one, is to ban it from 2023. We will see what the Grand Prix Commission decides in the next few days. From our point of view, I repeat, it is another Ducati innovation that other competitors are trying to block, giving reasons that we believe to be spurious,” he added.
“In MotoGP we are going to look for tenths of a second. This is a system that, in our opinion, on some circuits can work well, we are talking about perhaps a tenth or even less on some tracks. We contemplated the regulations and we did so. Now there is Let’s see what happens,” he concluded.
At the moment, Ducati is preparing the first test of the year with a version prior to the definitive engine that the Borgo Panigale engineers had designed for the 2022 unit.
