Ducati has dominated seasons and podiums with its borderline unbeatable GP23 and GP24 machinery. In some ways, the brand has been akin to the Empire in Star Wars—technically unstoppable and relentless. However, this rein has seemingly come to an end after the pre-season Buriram tests.
Well, kind of.
After days of testing, Marc Marquez aboard the factory Ducati tops the charts but not on an all-new machine. The Italian brand has decided to keep the GP24 engine for the 2025 season, which means this will also be the engine its 2026 title defense relies upon until the new ruleset comes into play in 2027. And you could look at that as a smart move, as it's proven and at least a season ahead of the rest of the grid in terms of performance.
Speaking about the decision on the second last day of testing, Marc Marques said, "It seems that the direction has been decided. Today we focused on the 2024 engine and, unless tomorrow the story changes completely, we will continue with this basis. We will not take any risks... Ducati was aware that the 2025 engine had to be much better than the 2024 one, because It will be approved for two seasons. We must not take risks."
But it's not only the GP24 engine that the factory team will run in 2025; it looks like the team and riders have opted to use both the chassis and most of the aero from the 2024 machine, too. To be fair, it seams the engineers have made some slight modifications to the engine and aero package, but it's a case of minor evolution rather than revolution.
The only significant upgrade on the GP25 versus the GP24 has come with electronics, leading some, myself included, to see this year's bike as more of a GP24.5 rather than a full-fledged GP25. Even with these relatively minor updates, Marc Marquez set a time of 1:28.855 on the GP25 at the Buriam MotoGP test, and his next closest rival was his brother aboard the GP24, who was 0.179 seconds behind.
The question is, has Ducati done enough to maintain its chances of winning yet another manufacturer's title? Or has the team played it too safe and left the door open for Aprilia and KTM, which are both less than three hundredths of a second off Marquez's leading time? Let us know in the comments.
