Ducati Announces 2020 MotoGP Plans

“Undaunted.” If Ducati’s 2020 MotoGP season were to have a theme, this is what Andrea Dovizioso would suggest. The Ducati factory rider has added this slogan to the seat of his leathers to remind first himself and secondly the entire team of their intentions to beat eight-time world champion Marc Márquez and his factory Honda.

“Last year, Marc won because he was faster—full stop,” Dovizioso said this past week at the team presentation in Bologna. “Strategy doesn’t count when you are slower in 19 races; you cannot beat him.”

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At the end of the 2019 season, 151 championship points separated Dovizioso from the Honda ace, and that is the starting point for the relaunched challenge. “Finishing second means losing,” stated Gigi Dall’Igna, general director of Ducati Corse. “After three years as vice champions, the target doesn’t change. We are even more determined to renew the fight for the MotoGP title.”

At Borgo Panigale, the racing department has worked overtime to make another step forward. “We worked in all areas of the bike—chassis, engine, and aerodynamics,” Dall’Igna said. “The last test of 2019 gave encouraging feedback, especially at Valencia. We will bring new items to Malaysia and Qatar, in particular a swingarm and some aerodynamics solutions.”

As for the engine, the white-bearded engineer believes Ducati will regain the top-speed advantage it lost to Honda in 2019. “Last year, Honda improved a lot in terms of top speed, which was one of the strengths of the Desmosedici,” Dall’Igna said. “We worked hard to close the gap, and we are satisfied with the results achieved, but only the track will tell us where our competitors are.”

Regarding aerodynamics, Dall’Igna has often surprised the paddock with his creativity and skill to interpret and push gray areas of the rule book. “It’s every good engineer’s task to explore the limits of the rules—remaining on the legal side,” he said. “Unfortunately, nowadays, the stable rules and strict limitations don’t give us so much room to be creative and explore alternative paths; we are in a cage. The new fairing will be tested at Sepang or Qatar. You won’t see many new things outside; the new solutions lie underneath.”

Finally, the chassis. Ducati’s riders have continually asked for a bike that’s easier to turn. “Looking for more horsepower didn’t prevent us from developing the chassis,” Dall’Igna added. “We tested the new chassis at the Valencia test, and we had very good feedback. In Jerez, the difference between the 2019 and the ’20 version was not so huge, so we want to test it again in Malaysia.”

Dall’Igna is proud Ducati is the only European manufacturer that has been able to win MotoGP races and challenge Japanese giants Honda and Yamaha for the title. “We are smaller in terms of human resources and budget,” he said, “and this has an impact on the technological development and budget.”

With the contracts for all top riders expiring at the end of the 2020 season, future plans are in flux. Ducati returns for 2020 with Dovizioso, who has finished second in the championship three years in a row, and Mugello race winner Petrucci.

“This is my second year as a factory rider, and now I know what to expect,” Petrucci said. “Last season, I always gave my best, but I was not able to turn the difficult moments into positives. I tried using strength and instinct rather than a proper method. After the mistake I had in Austria, I found myself in crisis. Now it’s time to face the season with more confidence.”

If Petrucci is confident, an “undaunted” Dovizioso is even more so. “No one is unbeatable, even Marc,” he warned. “I have studied how to beat Marc, starting with myself. First, I trained a lot to improve my speed on the single lap. Taking the lead from the first row is essential in MotoGP, and in the past years I was struggling in qualifying while I was able to make the difference in the final part of the race. Marc is the reference, but there are five or six others that are able to fight for the title. Yamaha, in particular, made a huge step forward in the second half of the 2019 season, and Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo will tackle the 2020 season with a different mentality.”

Dovizioso knows good results on the track will be the best guarantee of his renewal for the 2021–’22 seasons with the Italian manufacturer. Yamaha has already signed Viñales and Quartararo through the 2022 season, and it will also support Valentino Rossi with factory equipment and engineering if he decides to continue racing.

Ducati was reportedly very close to signing Viñales and was also negotiating with Quartararo. In a sport where victory can be determined by a thousandth of a second, timing is everything, and Yamaha kicks off 2020 2–0 in the race for the 2021–’22 championship.