No victory since October: Ducati is in crisis – Aprilia has made a big step forward technically – The Ducati riders have identified the problem
Ducati has not won a Grand Prix since Malaysia at the end of October 2025. In the new season, Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi took three start-finish victories. Not a single Ducati rider finished on the podium at the season opener in Thailand.
In Brazil, Fabio Di Giannantonio from the VR46 team finished third and most recently in the USA, there was once again no Ducati rider on the podium. Marc Marquez scored the only victory in the sprint race in Brazil. In addition, Aprilia has now celebrated two double victories in a row.
“Aprilia has improved enormously,” admitted Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi on Sky Italy. “I looked at the data from last year and compared it with that from this year. It’s obvious that Aprilia has made a significant leap.“
The Italian compares the Austin race with last year’s times: ”Bezzecchi had a race pace that was around seven tenths better, Ogura around eight tenths. We improved by one or two tenths. So it is clear that Aprilia has made an impressive improvement.“
”They have strong riders, just like us, but at the moment we are lagging a little behind. It is clear that we expect something from our engineers. I think Gigi is the first to be unhappy with this situation, so I am sure we will work on it.”
In Austin, the direct comparison between Aprilia and Ducati became clear when Ai Ogura caught up. The Trackhouse rider overtook Fermin Aldeguer, Alex Marquez, Francesco Bagnaia and Di Giannantonio.
Until the technical failure, the Japanese rider had worked his way up to fourth place. “To be honest, he overtook me,” said Alex Marquez. “I rode behind him on the limit for three corners, or rather I pushed myself.”
“And when I got my head right again, I asked myself: Where is he? At that moment, I didn’t think he would open up a gap straight away. So that was pretty impressive.”
Where the Aprilia is superior to the Ducati
The runner-up world champion observed the RS-GP closely: “The bike was really very stable, it turns in strongly and has a lot of grip. It was really impressive to see it in this situation. Only three corners long, but in those three corners it was really impressive.“
”They have a lot of stability, a lot of grip. That’s what it’s all about: they are better than us and we have to keep working. We have a lot of movement and it’s difficult to understand to what point you can push. Up to what point you still have good grip.”
“That’s exactly our problem at the moment,” says Alex Marquez, describing the Ducati’s current weakness. “Finding the limit or controlling the limit is very difficult for us.” He is not alone in this opinion, as the other Ducati riders also confirm this.
“I think we need to improve our front wheel,” says Di Giannantonio. “We need to be able to brake harder and carry more speed into the corner via the front wheel. That’s where our problem lies at the moment.“
”For us, everything runs through the rear wheel, and as soon as the rear tire degrades, we can no longer really show our speed. As soon as you have to get the bike to do exactly what it’s supposed to do, it becomes more critical, and that’s where they have an advantage.“
”They can brake a little later, they can still go into the corner with the brakes on, and they can use the front wheel to turn the bike in. At the moment we can’t do that. That’s why we use the rear tire a lot.”
“When you have a new tire, the bike is really good, then we can do what we want. But as soon as the rear tire degrades a little, you don’t have the front wheel that can compensate for this degradation of the rear tire, and that makes it much more difficult for us.“
”It’s like we’re using the rear wheel too much for everything,” says Di Giannantonio, naming the crucial aspect. “I think we have ridden incredible races in recent years because we were ahead of the competition in terms of controlling the rear tire.”
“But now that the others have made great progress with the front wheel, this control over the rear tire is no longer enough. We have to improve a lot on braking and corner entry.”
Tardozzi congratulates Aprilia
The impressions of Alex Marquez and Di Giannantonio were also confirmed by Bagnaia. In Austin, the two-time MotoGP World Champion led the sprint until the last lap, but his tire wear was too high in the end and he became easy prey for Jorge Martin.
Bagnaia also had problems with tire wear in the long race and increasingly dropped back to tenth place. “At the moment I think that our bike has to turn in via the rear wheel because the front wheel is pushing outwards,” said the former world champion.
“We can’t decelerate while the bike is pushing so hard forwards at the same time. So I have to turn in via the rear tire and that destroys it.” The Ducati riders have therefore identified the problems.
Now the engineers have to find solutions. They have a long break until the race in Jerez at the end of April. “Chapeau to Aprilia,” said Tardozzi after the three overseas races, congratulating the competition, “because they have made a significant technical leap forward.”
“I think we have the opportunity to get back into the championship fight. We are only in the third race, there have been unfortunate moments, but apart from that we need to be a bit more careful with our management – really understand what the riders need.“
”I think there have been situations where we have not got the best out of our riders. So it’s up to us to improve. And for sure the riders, Aldeguer as well as Marc, are absolutely not in [physical] shape at the moment.”
In the manufacturers’ standings, Ducati is 32 points behind Aprilia after three race weekends.
