Factory Ducati riders switch to year-old MotoGP engines for 2022

I felt this was a big enough talking point to start a new thread.https://www.motorsport.com/motogp/news/factory-ducati-riders-switch-to-year-old-motogp-engines-for-2022/8673865/

Big decision, I hope he knows what he is doing. Has happened before, in 2008, when Ducati went back to the 2007 engine after a few races, with no engine freeze then iirc.

Maybe it is a tractability over power thing, although I don’t think it is a bold assumption to consider that Gigi knows what he is doing either.

Apparently they say Pecco just thought the power delivery of the 21 engine better suited his riding style and the improvements in the 22 engine were not enough to sacrifice that.

Both Pramac bikes, and Luca Marini will continue with the full on 22 engine though, so we can at least compare them to the factory bikes to see if Pecco made the right choice.

While the article does not make it clear as to whether it was a Pecco based decision or both, the inference is very clear as to who is rider #1 in the team which is a very early call of where Ducati will put the focus.

Gaz said:

While the article does not make it clear as to whether it was a Pecco based decision or both, the inference is very clear as to who is rider #1 in the team which is a very early call of where Ducati will put the focus.

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I didn't think there was any question as to who is the #1 rider at Ducati.

PRS717 said:

I didn't think there was any question as to who is the #1 rider at Ducati.

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I know that - but this kind of makes it all official now.

To me, and yes there is bias, but the season has not started and they have shown their hand. Last year, Miller played #2 when his chances were gone to help Bagnaia, which is great for teamwork, but to now potentially have his chances restricted by not having input into the equipment is, well a return to the old days of clear #1 and #2. If somehow Miller matches with this bike better than does Pecco, it may get interesting as the year progresses to where the team focus their efforts

All still way to early to call on results

Gaz said:

I know that - but this kind of makes it all official now.

To me, and yes there is bias, but the season has not started and they have shown their hand. Last year, Miller played #2 when his chances were gone to help Bagnaia, which is great for teamwork, but to now potentially have his chances restricted by not having input into the equipment is, well a return to the old days of clear #1 and #2. If somehow Miller matches with this bike better than does Pecco, it may get interesting as the year progresses to where the team focus their efforts

All still way to early to call on results

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No doubt who is number 1, Bagnaia has the long term contract and deservedly so on last year’s results, Jack is possibly/probably gone at the end of the year.

Jack had a fair amount of bad luck earlier in the season last year, a significant amount of it spelt “Mir”, then rode for the team as you say. He will never be a contender on a Ducati if he can’t make his tyres last though.

If you are good enough you are old enough, but whether Bagnaia has the experience/judgement to make this call is somewhat in question for me. If Gigi has developed the new engine and considers it to be an improvement it is a big call not to go with it, since I would ascribe much of Ducati’s competitiveness in recent years to him rather than the riders. I guess Ducati can just give one of the other riders on a gp 22 with the 2022 engine such as Jorge Martin, the heir apparent to Jack’s seat anyway, the equivalent of full factory backing if it goes awry for the factory team.