On the 29th of July 2022, someone in the MXGP paddock told us Ducati would be entering the MXGP paddock in 2024. At first sceptical but then we spoke to Adam Wheeler from OTOR (On Track Off Road) who has MotoGP connections and it didn’t take him long to confirm the news. It gives you an idea how long this has been in the works.
Here we are in October 2023 and the news is finally official with just one change from the initial plan. Ducati won’t contest their first full MXGP season in 2024 – that will come in 2025 with next year being a testing year to get the bike up to speed. The Italian brand have already got Antonio Cairoli and Alessandro Lupino on-board who will be very good in testing roles. Next year Lupino will contest the Italian Championship and Cairoli should do some, if not all of them. The pair should also contest a couple of MXGP wildcard rounds – Cairoli back in MXGP at 38 years old. Exciting and very big exposure for Ducati.
Ducati are the MotoGP kings at the moment, they have eight(!) bikes contesting in the MotoGP class across four teams. Most brands have four and six is pushing it but Ducati have an incredible eight which just shows you the effort they are putting into it. MXGP will be ‘cheap’ in comparison to MotoGP as well and they’ve just signed up Marc Marquez for 2024 – he won’t be cheap!
But it hasn’t always been rosy for Ducati in MotoGP during the Casey Stoner era. Even though he brought them lots of success anyone else they signed flopped around that time as no one else could adapt to the bike – the talented Jorge Lorenzo even struggled. Fast forward to 2023 though and the bike is a riders dream so it shows the resources and finances that have been invested. It shows that Ducati don’t do things by half measures and will be taking their Motocross project very seriously.
It isn’t gong to be easy. The KTM family, HRC Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha have been in the paddock for a number of years and know exactly what they’re doing but Ducati will be motivated to run with the big dogs and establish themselves in the Motocross world.
The Italian brand have chosen an Italian team in Maddii Racing and Italian test riders with Alessandro Lupino and Antonio Cairoli – it really is the Italian job in 2024. For 2025 they might just want an Italian rider under the awning as well but they’ll strive for the best. Whether or not if they can attract the elite from as soon as 2025 remains to be seen but Ducati might just be a game changer. It probably won’t be too long into the 2024 season before we start hearing names linked to the new manufacturer.
After entering MXGP in 2025, they won’t stop there as they intend to enter the MX2 World Championship as well as the AMA paddock so this is a long term project and one we should be getting excited about.
Article: Andy McKinstry
