Ducati’s MotoGP weekend gains “difficult to expect”
“We can see how much the Ducati squad can improve from Saturday to Sunday”
Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales says the lap time gains Ducati can make from Saturday to Sunday during MotoGP race weekends is “difficult to expect”.
Ducati has commanded total domination of the 2024 MotoGP season so far, with its riders winning all but one grands prix out of the 16 run as of the Japanese GP.
It wrapped up the constructors’ championship at the Emilia Romagna GP and is now guaranteed to celebrate a third successive riders’ title in 2024.
The step forward Ducati made with its GP24 took the grid by surprise, with a key strength of the bike the apparent way it can utilise the grip offered by Michelin’s new rear tyres.
Vinales is the only rider to have beaten a Ducati on a Sunday so far in 2024, following his Americas GP win back in April.
And while Aprilia was a consistent podium threats early on to Ducati, that challenge has fallen away, with only Tech3 GASGAS rookie Pedro Acosta in recent rounds able to be on terms with the Desmosedici.
Asked about how Ducati is able to gain so much across a race weekend, Vinales told reporters at the Indonesian GP: “It’s always a good question, because we can see how much how the Ducati squad can improve from Saturday to Sunday.
“And it’s difficult to expect, because in many tracks if you take Friday, you can see yourself in the battle for winning the race.
“But when we get to Saturday, they are 0.3s faster. So, it’s quite hard to understand if it’s something technical, if the bike is strong enough to be constant in all the tracks.
“But it’s true that, for example, Pedro and myself were looking really strong and a challenger for the Ducatis at the start of the season, but now it’s on and off with results.
“They are able to be much more consistent. It’s a question all of us try to understand how they are able to be consistent in every track.
“It doesn’t matter of the conditions, wet, dry, half - they are always fast.
“We need to really understand and I think all of the paddock is asking that, why they are able to be so fast in all conditions.”
