It’s been 182 days since Ducati won a grand prix in MotoGP. Fermin Aldeguer’s success in Malaysia last September marked the most recent success for the Italian marque in the premier class.
While there were several caveats surrounding Ducati’s mixed form towards the end of last year, the early results from 2026 suggest a clear shift in the competitive order. In fact, it’s not only Aprilia that has become a cause of concern for Ducati, with KTM also emerging as a potent threat in the hands of Pedro Acosta.
The numbers speak for themselves. In the riders’ championship, Ducati’s top-placed man is fourth-placed Fabio di Giannantonio, behind Aprilia duo Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin, and KTM’s Acosta. In the manufacturers’ standings, Ducati is again trailing runaway leader Aprilia, while holding a narrow four-point lead over KTM.
But it’s the teams’ standings where the picture is truly alarming for Ducati. Across the opening three rounds, the factory Aprilia squad scored 158 points, more than twice as many as Ducati. In fact, Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia have only accumulated 70 points between them, leaving the ‘red team’ behind Aprilia, KTM and even Trackhouse in fourth place.
Gresini has fared even worse, not helped by Aldeguer’s absence from the Thai GP opener. But team-mate Alex Marquez also has had an unusually slow start to the season, with sixth-place in the Brazilian GP his best result in a Sunday race.
While Aprilia and KTM have clearly made rapid strides over the winter, Alex Marquez believes Ducati has stagnated, allowing the gap to widen at the front.
“Right now, they [Aprilia] are better, because they’re winning,” he said in Austin.” Last year, our bike was a bit ahead and they couldn’t beat us; this year, they are a step ahead, and I think we’ve remained a bit stuck in some way. That’s where Ducati is working very hard to bring new things.
“But I trust Ducati. I think there will be a point in the season where we can take a step forward. It’s always happened in Ducati’s history - when it’s a factory bike, they often need half a season to put everything in place, and then they start to perform very well, like in 2023 or 2022. So the hope is never lost. I’m the first one who won’t stop working and will keep giving my feedback to keep improving.”
With Alex Marquez enduring a lacklustre start to the season and reigning champion Marc Marquez still not fully recovered from his shoulder injury, VR46’s di Giannantonio has emerged as Ducati’s leading light.
According to the Italian, Ducati riders have now become overly reliant on the GP26’s rear-end, which remains the strongest point of the bike.
While this plays to Ducati’s advantage in sprint races, where tyre wear is less critical, it creates problems over full race distance as rear degradation increases.
“We need to improve our front, we need to be able to brake harder and bring more speed into the corner with the front,” he explained. “That is the issue that we have at the moment, that we're all on the rear, and once the rear is gone, we cannot really express our speed.”
Di Giannantonio claimed pole in the last two rounds at Goiania and Austin, showing how Ducati remains competitive on new Michelin tyres. However, that advantage doesn’t always translate into superior race pace on used rubber. Poor starts for di Giannantonio also haven’t helped Ducati’s cause.
“They have an advantage, they can brake a little later, they can go in with the brakes and they can use the front to turn the bike,” he explained. “At the moment we can't.
“We use the rear a lot. When you have a new tyre, the bike is really good, we can do whatever we want. But when the rear tyres start to drop a little, you don't have the front to support the drop of the rear tyre, so for us it's getting more difficult.”
He added: “In the last years we've done incredible races because we were ahead of the competition with the control of the rear tyre, but now that the [other] guys improved the front a lot, that control of the rear tyre is not enough. We need to improve the braking and the entry a lot.”
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