Ducati says its 2025 MotoGP rivals “are not to be undervalued”
“I know our opponents and they are very good”
Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi says its rivals for the 2025 MotoGP season “are not to be undervalued” but is “absolutely confident” the marque will be competitive every race.
On the final day of pre-season testing in Thailand this week, Ducati confirmed that it would be homologating its 2024 engine for its three factory riders for the next two years.
With the GP25 set to also start the season with a 2024 chassis and aerodynamics package, many have been criticising Ducati for standing still going into the new campaign, which opens the door for its rivals to close in.
Read more: Why Ducati is doing anything but standings still in 2025
While Tardozzi is wary of the form Ducati’s rivals have shown in the pre-season, he says he is pleased to see the increased level of competition.
“I’m happy because it looks that the rules work,” he told MotoGP’s After the Flag.
“It looks that giving concessions to the brands that have difficulties like Yamaha or Honda works.
“I think that Dorna did a good decision. So, we we saw that Fabio [Quartararo] is growing and [Pedro] Acosta is there.
“And I’m very happy for Marco Bezzecchi because Marco did a very good job today and [now we’re] waiting for the world champion [Jorge Martin to be back].
“I am absolutely confident our riders will be really competitive every race and for the championship.
“But as I said all winter when everybody was saying we’ve already won the title, I know our opponents and they are very good.
“They have good riders and they have good engineers, many of them from Ducati.
“So, I think we are not to undervalue them and there will be some races we will not win and we have to collect points because the championship is more important than winning every race.”
With Ducati’s engine decision, it means its satellite bikes for 2025 will be much closer in spec to the factory machinery than last year.
But Tardozzi sees this as a good thing in Ducati’s quest to dominate the championship again.
“It’s obvious that there are riders like Alex [Marquez] and [Franco] Morbidelli, we will see what the situation is with [Fabio] Di Giannantonio, but in the end I guess that our strong point will be that the satellite teams are really helpful and fast.
“So, I think in the end we have to compete other brands, not against ourselves.”
