There’s been speculation that Ducati would enter the Motocross world in 2024 and we believe it’s still likely to happen. Ducati should have a 450cc bike ready for the 2024 season and we believe they’ve been in talks with Maddii Racing for the season ahead. At the moment, the contract isn’t thought to been signed but plans are being put in place.
At this stage it’s thought that they’ll focus on the Italian Championship in 2024 and contest selected wildcard MXGP events. The goal for 2024 will be to develop and work on the machinery to be ready for the full MXGP World Championship in 2025. As the team at this stage aren’t planning to contest the full MXGP World Championship next year they might not be able to secure an elite/top MXGP rider so it’ll be important to attract a rider capable of developing the machinery.
The Maddii Racing team focus heavily on the EMX championships and despite making plans with Ducati we believe they will still run an EMX team but with another manufacture so they can still contest the EMX125 and EMX250 championships.
The Maddii Racing team have been running Fantic machinery since the Italian brand entered the Grand Prix paddock in 2020 and whilst the team aren’t expected to run Fantic machinery in the future, we believe the manufacturer will still remain in the paddock.
Ducati will also be expected to join the MX2 World Championship in 2026 if everything goes according to plan.
It’s good news for the sport with Triumph also joining the MX World in 2024 as they’ll enter the MX2 World Championship. It’s interesting to see Ducati go straight into MXGP as oppose to MX2 – they’re going down the same route as Beta who joined the paddock in 2021.