Ducati presented this Monday the motorcycle and the riders with which it will attack the 2022 MotoGP world championship, a challenge that the Borgo Panigale brand has resisted since it achieved it, for the first and only time, in 2007 with Casey Stoner .
For Gigi Dall’Igna , the team’s chief engineer and true architect of the ever-increasing potential of the Italian prototype, this is the ninth bike he has presented, convinced that it will be the best and will surpass his masterpiece from 2021.
The presentation, initially scheduled for January 28 and which had to be postponed when Jack Miller tested positive for covid, has finally taken place after the first pre-season tests, held over the weekend in Sepang and where was able to see the new 2022 machinery.
At the end of the day, the official Ducatis of Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller finished 6th and 14th, respectively, with Jorge Martín, with a 2022 Pramac team prototype, as the best classified of the brand, third overall.
“The Sepang test was the first test of the year, in which many things had to be chosen, a lot of material. So the focus was not on performance, but on the work that the drivers had to do”, explained Dall’ Igna at a telematic press conference.
“On Saturday we started the development of the new bike and I am quite happy. Things could be better, but also worse. There are some areas where we have to work a little more, but on Sunday we found some positive solutions. I think the pace It’s already good enough, but the next test will be crucial, because it will be the last one of the pre-season before the start of the season,” he said.
The 2021 Ducati ended up being, in general opinion, the best bike on the grid, but after two years of frozen engines, Dall’Igna was never tempted not to touch what was already working.
“As I said at the end of last year, I would have liked to freeze Pecco and thaw him for the start of this year’s Worlds, because in the final part of 2021 he was in incredible shape. But jokes aside, I think freezing things is always a mistake, because surely all our competitors will have taken important steps, perhaps some more than others, so standing still is never the best way to try to drive home your goals, you should always try to do better and stimulate all the people involved in the project to do the same to reach a goal that is certainly difficult”.
The work of the Italian engineers focused on maintaining the virtues of the 2021 bike and improving the less favorable points.
“Certainly we were satisfied with the general behavior of the 2021 bike, although there were some shortcomings in terms of performance and in some areas, and you could tell when looking at the races. For example, in Assen it was clear that we had something to improve in the corners. high speed, especially in the insertion, and this is one of the areas in which we have tried to develop the new bike”.
Ducati has always been distinguished by the power and top speed of its motorcycles, but the reality is that its strong point is technological innovation with original solutions that the rest of the competitors have had to copy following suit.
“I don’t think there is one area more important than others. We need to develop the bike in all aspects, from the chassis to the aerodynamics, to get to the lowering device, which has become an important element for the performance of the bike. But also the engine or the electronics. In the end, the fundamental thing is to find a good compromise between all these areas, balancing all the aspects of the bike well. I believe that this is the true objective of the designers and engineers who work on the design of the MotoGP”.
The 2021, the best Ducati in history
In that sense of total package commitment, Dall’Igna admits the 2021 Desmosedici GP is the best yet.
“Absolutely, although I hope that in 2022 we can improve it,” he says.
One of the points in which Ducati has innovated the most is the height device of the motorcycle, introduced in 2018, a system that has not stopped developing since then, always with the Italian technicians one step ahead of the rest.
“It’s hard to talk about the technical aspects today. This is an important area, where I think all the brands have worked hard over the winter to find an improvement. But I can’t explain what we’ve done on our bike this year, by At least until we see similar solutions on the other bikes”, Dall’Igna is keeping the secret.
The introduction of new devices that must be managed by drivers by means of paddles or buttons has made life difficult for runners, who now must carefully choose how and when to use them. This management burden has led some brokers to pay attention to technological escalation.
“Clearly all the drivers need to be focused, but I think there is room to handle things like this, because Formula 1 drivers do so much more. It is clear that driving a bike is not the same as a car, but honestly, our drivers they don’t detect it. We haven’t noticed that they have any problems in managing the different systems, also because it’s not mandatory to use them, it clearly loses performance, but the bike continues to work the same”.
Despite the enormous technological load that MotoGP prototypes increasingly mount, Dall’Igna sees room for growth.
“What we have to work on is a little bit on the whole controls part of the bike, on the engine management side. I think we still have some room there to do a little bit better.”
Ducati will have eight bikes on the 2022 grid, although it is not the first time that this has happened, it is being the reference prototype.
“Ducati has already had eight bikes on the grid in the past, so it’s just a question of organization. And I think we have the resources to do it. It’s not a problem, on the contrary, it’s important from a technical point of view, because we will have a lot of data available as well as feedback from various riders. Not only to develop the bike, but also to get feedback on the level of setup during the race weekends. I found the satellite teams to be quite happy for the first two days of test, both for the bikes and for the support received from Ducati. That’s why I think it’s a good thing for us and not a problem”.
What is going to be a problem for Ducati is going to be rider management this year, since Bagnaia is about to renew and is seen as the spearhead of the project, which will leave Jack Miller in an uncomfortable situation.
“At the beginning of the year I don’t think it makes sense to focus on one rider or another. I think it’s important to put them all on the same level and then see what happens. One season can be different from the previous one for many reasons. A team like Ducati doesn’t he can afford to make differences between his drivers before the season starts. But even during the year he has to give support to all his drivers”, was the politically correct answer.
It will also not be easy to manage the cock war between Jorge Martín and Enea Bastianini, both running to make the jump to the official team in 2023.
In that sense, Enea already said that his goal was to be an official Ducati rider and finish this year in the top five.
“I think he can finish the World Championship among the top five and he is proving it. Both in the November tests in Jerez and in Sepang he has ridden very well, and not only in the fastest lap, because his race pace has been very interesting. Keep in mind that his problems throughout last year were qualifying and the first laps of the race. In the fastest lap it seems to me that he has already made a big step forward compared to 2021. The first laps of the race we will know in a month or so, but the goal he has set for himself is certainly within his reach. But we will try to help all the Ducati riders to go fast.”
Although the priority, logically, is the development of the GP22, Dall’Igna guarantees that Bastianini, with a GP21 from the Gresini team, will have upgrades.
“Surely there will be some limitations. For example, the developments that we will do on the new engine will not be able to be mounted on his bike. But many other things that we are developing on the 2022 bike could also be mounted on Enea’s. It will depend on many things, but We will try to give it all the development it deserves”, settled the engineer from Vicenza .
This is the Ducati MotoGP 2022
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