Alex Marquez and Gigi Dall’Igna explain Ducati GP24 spec for 2025 MotoGP

Alex Marquez starred with a pair of second places behind brother Marc in the Thai MotoGP season opener.

The Gresini rider’s head-turning performances, which included leading for over half of the grand prix, were backed up by fourth place for fellow satellite GP24 rider Franco Morbidelli (VR46).

First and third in the grand prix were the factory Ducati Lenovo machines of Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia, which are currently closer than ever in specification to the satellite riders.

That’s because Ducati has chosen to keep the GP24 engine design for the GP25 and start the season with last year’s chassis and aero.

Everything apart from engine design can be updated as the season goes on, but there are already some subtle differences between the factory and satellite bikes, such as the swingarm.

“They are official riders, so they have some new versions,” Alex Marquez confirmed at Buriram.

“Our version is the one they had until Austria. That is our version of the 24 bike.

“Some differences, but we have good tools to fight in many races.

“Maybe for one lap, the differences [between the factory and satellite spec Ducatis] are not really big,” Alex Marquez added.

“To manage the long race, they have a small advantage, but it’s not really a big one.”

To put that timeframe into context, Austria was round 11 of 20 last year.

So not end of season spec but significantly newer than the satellite GP23 bikes used by Gresini and VR46 last year, which were said to be start-of-2023 and therefore already a year old by round one.

But the biggest performance difference for the satellite teams is probably that the GP24 was specifically designed to work with the latest Michelin rear tyre construction, while the GP23 was built for the previous tyre technology.

Ducati grid numbers have been reduced from eight to six this season with the departure of reigning champion’s Pramac to Yamaha.

VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio joins Marquez and Bagnaia on factory ‘GP25’ spec machines, while rookie Fermin Aldeguer has the satellite ‘GP24’ spec used by team-mate Alex Marquez and Morbidelli.

It is not yet known which technical upgrades the satellite GP24s will receive during the season but the GP25 riders will try new parts at the Jerez test.

"There is obviously a difference in some details between the factory bikes and the satellite ones," Ducati Corse general manager Gigi Dall’Igna told Sky Italia.

"We certainly have other developments planned, which we will try at the Jerez test. So we will do the next four races more or less with this configuration."