“Too much drama” in GP24/GP25 debate, says one Ducati MotoGP rider
The merits of the GP24 over the GP25 have been a major talking point in MotoGP this year
VR46 Ducati MotoGP rider Franco Morbidelli believes there has been “too much drama” in the debate between whether or not the GP24 was a better bike than the GP25.
After sweeping 19 of the 20 races run in 2024 with its GP24, Ducati wasn’t able to make a significant step forward with its 2025 package.
In winter testing, it was forced to abandon its full 2025 engine spec and run an updated 2024 version instead.
But the GP25 dominated the season, with Marc Marquez winning 11 grands prix and 14 sprints on his way to a seventh MotoGP title.
That form was contrasted with just two wins for team-mate Pecco Bagnaia who, along with Fabio Di Giannantonio, struggled to be consistent on the GP25.
At the same time, Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer scored four wins between them on the 2024-spec package at Gresini, with the former runner-up in the championship.
For the satellite riders not on factory-spec bikes, there has been strong debate about whether or not they would be better off sticking with the GP24 instead of stepping to the GP25 for the 2026 campaign.
“I’m riding a Ducati. I think it doesn’t really matter,” responded Franco Morbidelli to this line of questioning at the end of the 2025 season.
“Ducati is a great package, is a great bike. Also, the guys with the ’24 have struggled many times.
“If you really want to look at things how they went, everyone struggled: ’24, ’25, doesn’t matter, everybody struggles sometimes in some occasions. So, it doesn’t really matter.”
The GP25 only ‘struggled once’
Morbidelli believes there has been “too much drama” over this debate, with the VR46 rider noting that the GP25 only genuinely struggled once in Indonesia, as Marc Marquez remained consistent on the package throughout the year.
“I think this year, what happened this year, there has been too much drama between the ’24, ’25, ’26, ’20-whatever,” he said.
“The Ducati is a great package, it works really well: ’24, ’25, ’23, ’21 - it has worked really well since 2020.
“I’ve seen the performance of the riders who have tried both of them who have been going back and forth with this spec, because of some doubts, or because of something.
“But, sincerely, if I have to tell you if this package is clearly better than the other, I just can’t tell you.
“I can tell you that both packages are really, really good when they work well.
“And if they don’t work at their top, they struggle, like we’ve seen ‘24s struggling, like we’ve seen ‘25s struggling.
“If I have to analyse clearly, the ’25 has been struggling a lot less than the ’24 because we’ve seen Marc P1, P2 basically all year long, and he was on the ’25.
“He struggled much less than everybody else. So, we saw his GP25 just struggling once [in Indonesia].”
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
