How Ducati’s Aragon MotoGP win harks to its past and its future

“I fought many times against [Andrea] Dovizioso. Pecco was the same as Dovizioso, with a bit more corner speed.” Marc Marquez’s comment after losing out in an epic duel to Francesco Bagnaia in last Sunday’s MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix was an extremely pertinent observation on a significant weekend for Ducati.

Bagnaia headed team-mate Jack Miller for the marque’s first 1-2 in qualifying at Aragon since 2018, when Jorge Lorenzo headed Dovizioso. Back then, Ducati had already kicked its prospective future world champion to the kerb, while cracks in the relationship between Dovizioso and team management were already beginning to show.

The team atmosphere within the factory Ducati camp at Aragon in 2021 was a far cry from that of three years ago. Bagnaia then converted pole to his first victory in MotoGP – doing so on the exact day 50 years ago Ducati made its debut in the premier class. It was also Ducati’s first win at the Spanish venue since Casey Stoner – its last and so-far only champion – in 2010.

Bagnaia and Miller were the ones chosen to lead the factory squad in 2021. It was a move some questioned, given Ducati was ousting a three-time championship runner-up in Dovizioso and a double race winner in Danilo Petrucci in favour of two riders who had largely underwhelmed on the Desmosedici at that point.

Bagnaia was led astray in his rookie 2019 season by a banner lap time in pre-season testing, the Italian spending most of the season unable to adapt his Moto2 riding style to the demands of the Ducati. There were a few more flashes of speed in 2020 as he received factory machinery at Pramac, finishing second in the San Marino GP. Bad luck denied him a podium at the Andalusian GP when he suffered a mechanical issue, while a crash at the Emilia Romagna GP when he was leading cruelly ended his victory hopes. And a three-race lay-off at strong Ducati venues at Brno and Red Bull Ring came at the wrong time.

But his luck truly deserted him in the final five races of 2020 when he registered four DNFs. Hardly inspiring stuff for an incoming factory team Ducati rider. However, though Ducati’s rider decision for 2021 may well have been influenced in part by a desire to keep contract finances low, Bagnaia worked hard over the winter to eradicate his weak points – most notably his struggles in warming up the front tyre.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

That didn’t count for much at a scorching Aragon, but three podiums from the first four races in Qatar, Portugal and Jerez were big statements of his intent. Portugal may well have gone different if a cancelled lap in qualifying for a yellow flag infringement didn’t leave him with too much work to do from 11th on the grid. At Mugello, victory may well have come his way, but a crash while leading on lap two – his mind dogged by the tragic passing of Moto3 racer Jason Dupasquier the day before – put paid to that. And a dodgy rear tyre at Silverstone sent him from second on the grid to a miserable 14th.

“I think that every rider needs time,” Bagnaia said after his win on Sunday. “I struggled a lot in the first year, apart from Phillip Island when I finished fourth – but fourth with 12, 15 seconds from the first one. And the second year started well but I was not so fast sometimes. This year I was fast, but sometimes I was without possibility to win because in Portimao with the yellow flag in qualifying I missed the opportunity to fight, in Mugello I crashed because of my mistake.

“So, every time I was missing something. And this weekend we worked perfectly I think, so it will not be easy to make a weekend like this because not touching anything on the bike is incredible.”

There is very much the air around Bagnaia which suggests his breakthrough win has broken the chains which previously held him back in MotoGP

Bagnaia says he basically rolled his Ducati off the truck and didn’t remotely touch it all weekend set-up-wise. Quick from the off, it was a stark turnaround from the Aragon double-header of 2020 – when he struggled to stay on the bike in cold conditions, qualifying outside of the top 15 and crashing in both races. By contrast, his pole lap last Saturday smashed Marc Marquez’s six-year-old lap record by 0.313s.

As it happened, Bagnaia felt only the Honda rider was better than him on race pace. With Aragon being an anticlockwise circuit like the Sachsenring where he won back in June, Marquez was many people’s pre-weekend favourite for victory. And though not yet quite at 100% physical fitness, Bagnaia was subjected to the mental warfare in combat the Marquez of old has subjected to so many before.

As Bagnaia grabbed the holeshot from pole, Marquez carved past Miller into Turn 1 to shadow Bagnaia – where he would remain for the entire 23 laps. Both riders lapped incredibly strongly, keeping their pace in the mid-high 1m48s right up to lap 21 when they began to engage. By contrast, third-placed Joan Mir’s pace on the Suzuki dropped into the 1m49s on lap 11.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bagnaia, in the humble manner which has come to define the incredibly popular Valentino Rossi protege, conceded “I did four mistakes” in the race. From the outside, however, you would have never known. Bagnaia absorbed the pressure from the chasing Marquez, the Ducati rider feeling his position leading was far more comfortable than if he was the aggressor.

“I think that I was in the best position because when you start fighting in the last part of the race in a track like this, where the grip is not so high, it’s easier to defend because every time you try to overtake it’s easier to go wide,” Bagnaia noted.

Indeed, Marquez attempted seven overtakes across the final three laps. Not feeling as strong into the right-handers as he did on the lefts, Marquez’s battle plan was conditioned somewhat by his physical condition. So he made his moves into Turns 5 and 15 on laps 21 and 22, and Turns 1, 5 and 12 on the final tour. Each time he went wide, and Bagnaia wasted no time in striking back.

Marquez’s comment about Bagnaia being like Dovizioso only with better turning is a key factor in Bagnaia’s success. For starters, the 2021 Ducati is arguably the best bike it’s built since its championship season in 2007. Both Miller and Bagnaia noted across the Silverstone weekend, and again at Aragon, that the step forward with the bike’s handling compared to previous years was at its most noticeable. But even last year, the one element of Bagnaia’s arsenal that seriously impressed his rivals was his ability to turn the Ducati better than its other riders.

And of course, the one rider who repeatedly went head-to-head with Marquez and prevailed in race duels was Dovizioso. So it seems Ducati has, in Bagnaia, a rider akin to Dovizioso in many ways – and in many others, better than the 15-time MotoGP race winner.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Ducati’s faith in the likes of Bagnaia, Miller and Jorge Martin has proven to have been well-placed in 2021, while a sixth-place for Avintia’s Enea Bastianini on the two-year-old GP19 suggests a fourth young superstar is gearing up for big things for the marque.

But Bagnaia’s first victory feels long overdue. Ducati boss Davide Tardozzi told my colleague Oriol Puigdemont ahead of this weekend to watch out for Bagnaia. And after Sunday’s race, Tardozzi told him to wait until you see Bagnaia go at Misano this weekend.

There is very much the air around Bagnaia which suggests his breakthrough win has broken the chains which previously held him back in MotoGP and, brimming with the confidence of beating Marc Marquez in a head-to-head duel, a much stronger Bagnaia will begin turning up at races from now on…

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Dorna