Ducati “confident” in MotoGP bike updates as Marc Marquez debuts updated chassis
Ducati has made steps coming to Le Mans
Ducati boss Davide Tardozzi says the brand is “pretty confident” in the steps it has made with its 2025 MotoGP bike after Marc Marquez topped FP1 at Le Mans on a new chassis.
The Italian manufacturer has made a perfect start to the 2025 campaign as its bikes have won every single race held so far.
Its factory machines have won all five sprints and four of the first five GPs, while the GP24 in Alex Marquez’s hands took victory at the Spanish GP.
Ducati brought small updates to its factory bike at the Jerez test, which it has implemented for this weekend’s French Grand Prix.
The most significant is a slightly modified chassis that Marc Marquez used to top FP1 at Le Mans by almost six tenths of a second.
The frame is an evolution of the 2024 chassis it continues to use, having parked the 2025 version during the pre-season to further develop it.
Marquez currently has just one of the new frames and is the only Ducati rider on it.
Speaking to the MotoGP world feed after FP1, Tardozzi said: “I think it is quite impressive, 1m30.7s at the end of the session on the same tyre [from Marquez].
“I think that some things that we tested in Jerez worked on both sides: Pecco [Bagnaia’s] side and Marc’s side.
“So, we are pretty confident we’ve made a good step ahead.
“It’s not big, but we know Gigi and his engineers are always working for new pace to improve the bike. We didn’t make a revolution, we make an evolution.”
Tardozzi says Ducati needs to debrief with Marquez still to understand if the updated frame is the way forward, but is ready to provide all of its factory riders if that proves to be the case.
“We’ll see. The chassis are the same, there are a few small things that are different,” he added.
“But we will see after the debrief that we will have after the practice start session.
“And we will see what is the decision. But we are ready to provide everything to the rider.
“In this moment, we want to be focused on the small evolution and decide what it will be for the race.”
Theoretically, this updated chassis is one that can be delivered to all of its riders if Ducati deems it worthwhile enough to produce enough for its six riders.
Tardozzi didn’t say why only Marc Marquez had the frame to try and not Bagnaia also, which will only fuel speculation about the shifting dynamic within the factory team.
