Last year, the title fight was between Francesco Bagnaia from the Ducati factory team and Jorge Martín from the Pramac Prima, a satellite team of the manufacturer. Italian rider Bagnaia became the champion, but it wasn’t due to any preference or differential treatment because of the team’s status.
Paolo Ciabatti, who was the team manager for Ducati until last year, assured this to MCN, stating that the equipment provided to Pramac is exactly the same:
– By definition, it is an independent team, but we call it a «factory-supported team». It is the only team that has exactly the same specification as the factory team. The official Ducati Lenovo team tries to do the best they can, but technically there is no difference between them. We only ask them to avoid overly aggressive maneuvers between them.