Marc Marquez: 2025 Ducati MotoGP engine “has very weak points”
Buriram test day one pacesetter explains Ducati engine situation
Marc Marquez says the reason Ducati is leaning towards racing the GP24 MotoGP engine in 2025 is because the GP25 version “has very weak points”.
On Wednesday at the Buriram test, Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi confirmed that the marque was likely to homologate the 2024 engine for the coming season because the GP25-spec brought with it too many risks.
Engine development for non-concession manufacturers will be frozen for the next two years from the opening round of the 2025 campaign in Thailand.
With the GP24 winning 16 of 20 races last season, Marquez says Ducati can’t “take the risk” to homologate a GP25 the riders are unsure about give its obvious weaknesses.
“I mean one thing is the engine and the other thing is all the small pieces that we have, new pieces,” Marquez said after topping day one of the Buriram test.
“Today basically we concentrated most of the day to 2024 engine, because looks like if tomorrow doesn’t change a lot, it looks like it is the way [for the season].
“Why? Because Ducati is very realistic and they know, and they are very smart, that we cannot take the risk to homologate an engine that if we are not 100, 100% sure is better than 2024 because if we homologate the engine we homologate it for two years.
“So, we understand from the first day to today that the 2025 is a little bit more up and down: very strong in some points, [but has] very weak points.
“So, they have the experience to use the 2024 in different race tracks.
“They won 16 races last year, so that means that the bike was in a very good base.
“And it looks like now we are going into that base, but tomorrow we will reconfirm.
“But I feel super good on 2024 base. When I say 2024, it’s the 2024 bike. It’s the base of 2024, the engine, but they work a lot on very small items that we are introducing to that engine now.”
Pecco Bagnaia verdict on 2025 engine
Team-mate Francesco Bagnaia says the 2025 engine isn’t necessarily uncompetitive, but Ducati has so far struggled to “find a balance on braking” to confidently race it.
“Honestly, it’s a very difficult choice and in this moment we are both leaning, and the team also, in the same direction: to go with the 2024 engine,” Bagnaia, who was eighth on Wednesday in Thailand, said.
“Just because, not that the 2025 is not competitive, but we are still struggling to find a balance on braking and it would be like a ‘limbo’ to start the season with an engine that we are not finding any solution to solve this problem.
“Apart from that, we are lucky that today Marc [Marquez] didn’t have any issues because from my side of the garage today nothing worked from the start of the day.
“We had many problems and luckily my team did a fantastic job to give to me a little possibility of riding, but today from the start of the day nothing was working.”
In 2022, Ducati’s factory team elected to run an older engine spec in its new bike after struggling in the pre-season with the full GP22 motor.
Quotes provided by Crash Indonesian Editor Derry Munikartono
