With the new concessions system and after last year’s dominance, Ducati is now the most limited manufacturer in the development of its MotoGP bike. Throughout the year, testing opportunities will be scarce, there won’t be any wildcards, and the team cannot have more than one specification of the engine and aerodynamics.
This situation poses extra challenges for Ducati in the upcoming season: ‘For sure it’s difficult also because of the rules. At the end of the last year the rules changed and now we are the only ones that haven’t the concessions. All the others can develop the bike a lot more during the season, we cannot’, the Ducati Corse’s general manager, Gigi Dall’Igna, said to MotoGP.com.
In this context, the engineer emphasized that Ducati will have to make more progress before the start of the season and cannot afford mistakes in the development of the Desmosedici GP24: ‘So we need to take a bigger step at the beginning of the season in order to be competitive during the season. And also the Japanese can risk a little bit more than us because they can change the engine, they can change the fairing during the season and so if they have some problems they can react and solve the problems. And we cannot. So it will not be easy’.