Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1526959
VOLUME 61 ISSUE 38 SEPTEMBER 24, 2024 P147 management problems that their rivals can only dream about—which rider to favor and how to do it? Although the constructors' title is a certainty, and the factory squad has one hand on the teams' title as well, the riders' title is the one that matters most. Team orders offer a labyrinth of ill will and pitfalls. At the same time, a free-for-all has ele - ments of danger. The renegades are led by strong 2023 and 2024 title candidate Jorge Martin, and if he does win, he will take the coveted number-one plate with him to Aprilia. Then there is fellow former Moto2 Champion Bastianini, bound for KTM's second factory team. The third runaway is Bezzecchi, who is to join Martin at Aprilia. Right now, they look like los - ers, abandoning the dominant mark. If that's harsh, let's put it another way. Let's admire their courage in taking on a chal- lenge. Risk-takers. Both Aprilia and KTM serially lag behind Ducati, even though each has made significant improvements, especially this year. Just not as big as Ducati's improvements. And Ducati is likely to keep on with it, if recent history is reliable. They have continuously led the way in all areas. Rivals imitated every one of Ducati's innovations, yet genius Ducati Corse boss Gigi Dall'Igna's fer - tile imagination has kept them consistently one step ahead in finding clever ways around restrictive regs. Ducati is also a loser in this reshuffle: Three excellent riders are gone. They take with them not only potential victories but also inside knowledge. But Dall'Igna has found an - other clever way to counter that factor, shoving Marc Marquez into the factory team. It is an- other way of making the task of beating Ducati all the harder. In the words (more or less) of the Polish National anthem, however, all is not yet complete - ly lost. Aprilia has had clever ideas, too, including the ground-effect fairing side-pods. And there are questions about just how much their current riders have been able to maximize the second Italian company's results. Vinales (himself off to KTM next year) is brilliant on his day but very erratic. One GP and two Sprint wins this year contrast with seven zeros and a string of low scores. He blames the bike, citing his reason for switching: he wants to be strong every weekend, not just sometimes. Yet it was the same when he rode for Yamaha, strong one weekend, absent the next. Aleix Espargaro is an old campaigner and clearly a valu - able development rider, widely experienced. But it took him almost 20 years and almost 300 starts in all GP classes before scoring his first win (in 2022) in any of them. Two more since then make him Aprilia's most successful rider by far. Martin clearly believes he has the extra talent to bring out Aprilia's true potential. He may well be right. As for KTM, for Bastianini and Vinales? The Austrian bike has been hovering on the brink of a breakthrough since arriv - ing in 2017. This year's version, though yet to win, is the best ever. The 2025 prototype has been promising in tests and in wild card outings with Pol Espargaro and Dani Pedrosa. But KTM's win rate has dropped. There were three victories in 2020, two each for the following years, and none since 2022. Moving to either of these rival teams means putting one's faith in their designers and engineers. A policy that worked with Ducati. Luckily for the chancers, things in racing can change unexpect - edly. After all, five years ago who would have predicted that Honda and Yamaha would be at the bot- tom of the class? CN NEXT YEAR, BIG CHANGES. WITH THREE OF THE EIGHT LEAVING TO JOIN RIVALS, WHICH TWO CURRENT CONTENDERS WILL DUCATI HAVE AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RIVALS INSTEAD?