Ducati now dominates the MotoGP circuit. KTM test rider Pol Espargaro predicts that next season that dominance will start to erode.
Ducati has led its riders to win the world championship title in the last two seasons. This season, Francesco Bagnaia is also at the forefront of the competition, so he has a good chance of a hat-trick of titles.
Ducati’s dominance can also be felt from week to week. At the Austrian MotoGP last week, for example, seven Ducati bikes finished in the top 10 with both 2024 and 2023 engines. Currently, the top four riders in the world championship standings are also Ducati riders. Francesco Bagnaia leads Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini, and Marc Marquez.
Pol Espargaro, who is now a KTM test rider, praised Ducati’s hard work to be in the position it is now. One of their brilliant strategies is to deploy eight bikes to the track. This allows Ducati to collect as much data as possible and in a faster time than its rivals.
However, starting next season, Ducati’s superiority is predicted to erode. It is because they lost one team, which means two bikes. In addition, the departure of Martin and Bastianini will leave an effect.
“Ducati is very superior, I’m sure this is the result of years of having a big data advantage that other manufacturers don’t have, one of a number of things,” said Pol Espargaro. “They were able to develop the bike much faster and now we are overwhelmed because of that. But it’s normal if you have eight bikes on the track for years, while others only have two or four at most.”
“Having 50% fewer bikes on the track is crazy. But little by little the situation will turn around, starting next year. Because they lost one team and a number of very fast riders,” he added.
In addition, KTM’s home race ended up in disappointment, with the marque’s best runner Brad Binder finishing fifth and 18.6s down on winner Francesco Bagnaia. Espargaro finished in 11th on KTM’s test bike, while Tech3 duo Pedro Acosta and Augusto Fernandez narrowly finished inside the points in 13th and 15th respectively.
While the gap to Ducati was startling, Espargaro took encouragement from the result, which put KTM ahead of Aprilia in the pecking order.
