There are some new developments for Dylan Ferrandis in 2026. The French rider has joined the Troy Lee Designs Red Bull Ducati Factory Racing team during the off-season. For the former US 450 MX champion, joining Ducati marks a new turning point in his career. Having had to deal with a few chassis issues on his Honda over the past two seasons, the French rider quickly realized that the Desmo met his expectations. With less than a month before the first round of the AMA championships, everything is go.
“The big plus of this Ducati for me is that it fixes what I didn’t really like about the Honda in terms of the frame,” Dylan Ferrandis says during the press day organised ahead of the start of the 2026 season. “From the first day on the Honda, I was struggling with a very flexible frame. I think that’s what they worked on most with Ducati: they developed a frame having understood the importance of its rigidity – especially in Supercross. There are a lot of forces acting on the bike during compressions and landings, and they understood that better than anyone. That’s really the big strength of this bike. The chassis is excellent, the bike is very well balanced. I know that at this time of the season, everyone will say the same thing and claim that the bike is perfect, that it’s the best. But like always, I speak my mind and I’m not the type to lie: the Ducati frame corrects a lot of what used to bother me on the Honda. Obviously, HRC fixed the issues, but at Phoenix Racing we didn’t have enough resources to do the same. This Desmo really matches what I was looking for in a Supercross chassis and frame for the past few years.”
Since joining Ducati, Dylan Ferrandis has spent the last two months testing and fine-tuning his setup in preparation for the 2026 season. Over the course of training, the French rider had to learn the strengths and quickly identify weaknesses to fully exploit the potential of the new Desmo.
“These past two months, we’ve worked on a few things,” explains the official Ducati rider. “On day one with the Ducati, I couldn’t ride it – we didn’t understand why. I couldn’t hit a single triple jump, I couldn’t ride the bike. It turned out the problem came from the foot-peg height, because it’s very different from other bikes, and it bothered me a lot. After a bit of testing, we realized that was the issue. On the Ducati there are things that are very different from other bikes and that work great, like the engine and the chassis. But there are other things that suited me less, like the foot-peg position, the shifter, the brakes, etc. Now, I’ve been riding the bike for two months, and we are testing many things. The team knows me well since many staff members were with me at Phoenix. They know what I want and what I’m looking for, so the transition was fairly natural. But Ducati in Supercross is new – no one has ever raced in the discipline with this bike before — so we have many things to try. We need to report feedback to get adjustments, so it took a bit of time. But now we are good. Everything that was a problem for me has been corrected, and we are in a good place.”
After two mixed seasons, Dylan Ferrandis regains confidence and ambition with the Ducati team. The French rider had to lower his targets following health issues and mediocre performances with Honda, but now sees his potential explode with the Desmo. With his motivation reborn, Dylan Ferrandis looks confident just weeks before the start of the 2026 Supercross season.
“Given my last two years, my goals were not very high,” admits the French rider despite five top-5 finishes with Phoenix Racing Honda over those two seasons. “I had some health setbacks, etc. The Honda was a good bike, but I wasn’t able to regain the speed I had shown in the past with it, and so I didn’t have the same ambitions in terms of results. But now, with the Ducati team, as soon as I finish training, my motivation is sky high, and I’m raising my goals. Given the bike we have, we have no excuses. On a good day, when everything comes together, I think a podium is possible. I have no doubt about that and I am confident with this Desmo bike. I don’t really know how the first races will unfold, because obviously this will all be new for us. We will probably need a bit of time to learn, especially at the starts and when we are on track with the other riders. But given what I see in training, how the bike reacts in the whoops, when it’s slick, etc., I tell myself that we are capable of fighting for the podium. It’s motivating for me – and that’s why I’m still here!”
During early talks with Ducati, Dylan Ferrandis admitted he wasn’t totally convinced, fearing he might spend most of his time developing the Desmo. But after a few promising test sessions in Supercross, the French rider quickly saw the potential of the Ducati.
“At first, I wasn’t super excited about the project to be honest, because I didn’t want to be a development rider at this stage of my career,” Dylan concedes, still frank. “I was already a test rider for Yamaha when the new bike came out, and last year Honda also had a new bike. That role is not something I particularly like. But honestly, from my first laps in Supercross, the bike suited me. It was good enough that I could feel comfortable from the get-go in Supercross. So, to be honest, I didn’t do that much testing and development. We tested a lot on the engine, but besides that, there wasn’t much else done. And that really shows how good the base of the bike was already.”
With just weeks to go until Anaheim 1, Dylan Ferrandis spends his days testing to find the best compromise and setup. While every detail counts, the French rider says he already has a solid base with the Desmo, which will make its Supercross debut this year with the pairing Barcia / Ferrandis.
“I think we’re not far from being ready at this stage. Last week, I spent each day on track, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. We tried many parts and learned a lot, and in the end we found exactly what we were looking for. Now we’re fine-tuning the small details – how to improve the fork a little, how to make sure we get good starts in all conditions: hot, cold, when the track is hard, when it’s soft. It’s craftsmanship work. We’ve already found a good, solid base, and we’ll use the month we have left before Anaheim 1 to make the final adjustments. I think arriving at A1, we’ll still be fine-tuning, but by San Diego or Anaheim 2 we should be ready.”
For Dylan Ferrandis, the 2026 season marks a milestone in his career as a Factory rider. While the Ducati adventure represents a new, exciting challenge, it also comes with logistical constraints just weeks ahead of the first round of the 2026 season.
“I’ve never been part of a ‘real’ factory team, because every team I’ve been on in my career had factory support, but was not managed directly by the factory. Star Racing wasn’t, Phoenix wasn’t, even Kawasaki wasn’t factory managed in the GP. So this is my first 100% factory bike. But to be honest, we’re already starting to run low on parts. It’s been quite difficult for the team to get parts shipped to the United States. So, we’ve had a bit of trouble on that side. But so far it hasn’t been too much of a problem. I know that the team is fairly limited in parts, in options to test. So we’re taking things week by week. Each week we receive new parts, and it should be fine for Anaheim 1. But for now we need to be careful.”
