Ducati raise eyebrows as Marc Marquez's worrying launches are spotted

With just a few weeks remaining before the start of the 2025 MotoGP World Championship, this week’s Buriram test is critical for many factories, including Ducati, to choose its specification for the upcoming season.

At last week’s test in Sepang, Ducati and its factory riders – Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez – were undecided on the specification they should choose. A full GP25, full GP24, and a hybrid between the two bikes were all possibilities.

Two factors were important: firstly, the strength of the GP24, which won all but four Grand Prix in 2024; and secondly the two-year homologation for this year’s engine as a result of the development freeze that will be implemented for 2026, making the Bologna brand relatively keen to avoid unnecessary risks (as Marc Marquez put it after Sepang) in making its decision on the 2025 bike.

With the test in Thailand being the final one before the season begins in Buriram in three weeks’ time, it is the final chance for Ducati to make its decision.

But, instead of continuing back-to-back testing of the GP25 components and the GP24 components in Buriram, Ducati appears to have reverted fully to the GP24, as pointed out by Jack Appleyard on X (formerly Twitter) who notes that neither the new engine, nor the new chassis or fairing, are being used today in Buriram.

Ducati boss Davide Tardozzi suggested they will take the 2024 engine into the season.

In the afternoon session on day one in Thailand, Bagnaia rode with the new fairing.

Launch problems

It’s not only Ducati’s apparent total reversion to the GP24 which is curious about its opening day of the two-day Buriram test, but also the practice starts of its factory riders.

Neither Francesco Bagnaia nor Marc Marquez are seemingly able to get consistently good starts on the factory Desmosedici at the moment.

“We were watching Bagnaia and Marquez’s practice starts,” said MotoGP.com’s Louis Suddaby said.

“Bagnaia’s first left a big black line on the straight!

“The rest of the starts, they struggled to keep the front wheel down.”

Jack Appleyard, MotoGP.com pit lane reporter, added: “A couple of guys on the pitwall that I was speaking to said that Marquez, in particular, they don’t think they’ve seen him do a good start, at all, in preseason testing!

“They were saying they were flabbergasted how, every practice start that Marquez has done, he doesn’t seem to be dialled in.

“To me, you assume Ducati are searching for extra performance in the GP25 and, at the moment, haven’t got the launch controls fully dialled in.

“Bagnaia was spinning the rear wheel, Marquez was spinning the rear wheel. They just could not get it sorted!”

Outside of the factory team, there were problems getting off the line, too, for the Ducati riders, most notably for rookie Fermin Aldeguer, who almost hit his Gresini teammate Alex Marquez as they both pulled away; the rookie spinning the rear wheel and turning left as he tried to launch his GP24.