Ducati has seen going short this year after one of the most dominant seasons that a MotoGP manufacturer can ever demonstrate.
The long time faithful ally Pramac has now become defunct, reducing the number of bikes on the grid to only six and still falling prey to the ‘Rank A’ manufacturer status-disallowing wildcards and least possible test tyres.
None of these will bother its general manager, however, most of all, as Gigi Dall’Igna told, “The real problem is that other manufacturers have better riders.” “In the past you saw other bikes-flame Aprilia made a step from two bikes to four, and anyway same or other results were.”
“I don’t think that to have just six bikes on the grid, six riders, will be a real problem for us. The real problem is that [Jorge] Martin is leaving for another company, and also Enea [Bastianini].
“This is the real problem.”
Ducati’s rider roster may still be led by Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez – so it’s still alright! – but while both Martin and Bastianini wouldn’t have accepted a satellite deal, it can surely be rightly asked whether Ducati’s early-season move for Fermin Aldeguer has played any part in “weakening” its roster, at least for now.
Aldeguer now definitely takes one of its factory-contract slots for two years and is coming off a particularly disappointing Moto2 season. The stakes are much higher now for him to pan out as a prospect.
Buyer’s remorse?
Ducati kept Aldeguer attached to chain and pedals as he came out from the young Spaniard’s run towards late 2023, wherein he was winning race after race with stunning ease – with not even Pedro Acosta, differently assuredly already busy preparing for MotoGP by that time, able to mount much of a challenge.
Not that a new pair of Pirellis for ’24 transformed Moto2 into something like into an opener at Qatar for Aldeguer, as the Spaniard went into complete meltdown over tyre performance, and though that wouldn’t stand as a general misrepresentation, it kind of set the premise for a campaign that showed almost unfailingly below par.
In ’23 he showed off with one of two riders on Boscoscuro bikes; in ’24, he was more or less par for the course as one of four riders on Boscoscuros – Ai Ogura, representing MT Helmets, the new customer team from the Italian brand MSi, made hay, on the contrary.
The notion that he had soured Ducati on Aldeguer before ever seeing him turn a wheel on the Desmosedici was sharply countered by Dall’Igna though when asked about him and his season by The Race.
Dall’Igna said, “In my opinion, Fermin is among the young talents to watch in MotoGP – and I am pretty satisfied because we could sign him for one of our teams; and he has a lot of really good things and some things that he has to develop and understand better.”
