Ducati point to preferred engine - but “decision hasn’t been taken”

Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi says the marque is leaning towards homologating the GP24 engine for its 2025 MotoGP bike, but a final decision is yet to be taken.

The GP24 proved to be one of the most dominant bikes in MotoGP history, as it won 16 of the 20 grand prix held last year.

With a two-year engine freeze coming into force at the start of 2025, both Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia spent a lot of time during the Sepang test comparing the GP24 and GP25 engine.

With the GP24 engine at such a good level already, both riders said they had to be absolutely sure the GP25 was a significant enough step to homologate it for the next two years.

On day one of this week’s Buriram test in Thailand, both factory Ducati riders appeared to be favouring the GP24 engine - with Tardozzi confirming that this is now the most likely direction it will go in.

“So far the decision hasn’t been taken yet, but it looks like we are going towards the 2024,” Tardozzi told MotoGP’s After the Flag.

“But finally tonight Gigi and the engineers will take the final decision. My feeling is that [that we will use the GP24], but it’s not been decided so far.”

Ducati engine for Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia?

This isn’t the first time Ducati has elected to run an older engine in its new bike, after the factory team made an eleventh-hour change to a hybrid 2021/2022 engine for its GP22.

This proved to be a smart move, as Bagnaia went on to win the championship while the Pramac duo running the full 2022-spec engine scored just eight podiums between them.

Tardozzi confirmed that the decision to likely go for the GP24 is down to the two-year engine freeze coming into force.

“Yeah, because as we already said we will take this decision because we have to freeze [the engine] for two years and we don’t want to take risks in the next two years,” he said.

“So, the 2024 engine gave us good feedback in the past and reliability. So, my feeling is this will be the decision.”

Marquez also raised eyebrows on Wednesday in Thailand as he didn’t run Ducati’s 2025 aero package.

However, Tardozzi confirmed this was simply down to both riders running different programmes, while has also played down both riders struggling during a practice start session.

“They have different work to do today, different programmes,” he explained.

“Marc is doing something else. He’s also investigating different positions on the bike because he doesn’t seem so comfortable.

“So, he’s tried different ergonomics, handlebars and other things to be sat better on the bike.

“I think that one of the problems was they make the start with the hard tyre, but I see also other brands having the same problem.

“So it seems there the bike, the clutch was not set in the proper way. But I think as usual Marc and Pecco will start well in the next race.”