Gigi Dall'Igna has his say on Jorge Martin taking the #1 to Aprilia

Ducati’s general manager Gigi Dall’Igna says “it’s not a problem” to see Jorge Martin put the #1 on his Aprilia MotoGP bike as “in this case it’s just a number”.

Martin won the 2024 title for Ducati at the Pramac squad last year, but did so having already signed a factory deal with Aprilia for the next two years after being overlooked for a factory seat at the Bologna-based marque.

At Aprilia’s launch event last week, Martin revealed the #1 plate on his RS-GP.

Speaking at Ducati’s 2025 factory team launch event on Monday, Dall’Igna said when asked about this: “It’s not a problem to have the number one on the bike or not.

“The problem is to win the championship and we did this last year.

“This is the most important thing. So, the number one in this case is just a number and for sure I would like to have this on our bike.

“But the priority is to win the championship.”

Ducati comes into the 2025 season with the strongest line-up on the grid, as six-time MotoGP title winner Marc Marquez joins double premier classic champion Francesco Bagnaia.

The pair pulled the wraps off of their 2025 colours at an event at the Madonna di Campiglio in Italy.

Ducati dominated the 2024 season, as it won 19 of 20 grands prix and secured the constructors’ championship by 395 points.

Looking ahead to testing of its GP25, Dall’Igna noted that the bike was already at such a good level that there is ‘no rush’ to throw developments at it.

“The target is easy, for sure the path that we need to follow achieve this result is not easy,” he added.

“But anyway, we have a clear idea about the situation. A lot of things to test. I think we have to keep in mind that last year’s bike was, honestly speaking, quite good.

“So, we don’t have any rush to put on the new bike a lot of things.

“So, we have a lot of things in the pocket and we have to select what is the base for the start of the season.”

Dall’Igna noted that both Marquez and Bagnaia had the same comments about the GP25 prototype at the Barcelona test last year, but the marque won’t be averse to going in different directions for each of them if they need to.

“Honestly speaking, the first test in Barcelona, both of them gave us the same comment on the new evolution of the bike,” he said.

“So, I’m quite surprised about that but it’s not a real problem for us to follow different paths if the riders ask us to do this."