What Bagnaia wants from the 2024 Ducati

The 2023 factory spec Ducati won 13 MotoGPs, 13 Sprints, and finished first and second in the world championship with Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin.

Peter McLaren

19 Dec 2023

Francesco Bagnaia, Valencia MotoGP test, 28 November

But the older, 2022 bike was also victorious, winning 4 MotoGPs in the hands of Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio di Giannantonio, with the VR46 rider also third overall in the world championship.

As such, it’s no surprise that newly crowned double MotoGP champion Bagnaia is aiming to combine the best of both recent bikes for 2024.

“The good thing about the old [2022] bike was the entrance of the corners. You could keep a lot of speed and it had more turning,” Bagnaia said.

“Last year’s [2023] bike was very good on traction, very good on the first part of braking, but I was losing a lot in the entrance to the corners.

“I think that the weight distribution of the ’24 bike is more similar to the ‘22. It helped me, and also I think Enea [Bastianini], on the entrance to the corners.”

While Bagnaia focussed on engine developments at last month’s Valencia test, saying he was pleased with the ‘connection’ he felt under acceleration but would like the power delivery to be refined, he will turn attention to the chassis at the Sepang test in February.

“I asked just to try things about the engine, because I don't want to filter too much the [new] engine,” he said. “For things about the chassis we will have Malaysia.”