be so much better than the new
one that they'll carry on using
it for the next two years. GP25
goes straight in the bin—chas-
sis, engine and all.
This
is a complete denial of
a racing principle articulated to
me many years ago by a famed
tuner/crew chief of the two-
stroke era, a time when bike
development went on race by
race and even day by day. It was
as much in the back of the van
as back at the factory: gifted
engineers with rats-tail files. Or
something rather like that.
"What succeeds in racing,"
said Kel Carruthers, Kenny Rob
-
erts's pit-box guru and himself
the last-ever
four-stroke 250
champion, "is what won last
year, plus a couple of percent."
Well, not this time, apparently.
The GP24 outranked the GP25,
without any percentage points
required.
S
omething old, something
new; something borrowed,
something blue… or just
something old? Ducati's back-
track dilemma has been both
enviable, and indicative. While
rival factories scrabble to catch
up, the Italians have put their
stallions into reverse.
All the work over the winter
to improve their 2024 title-
winning bike was for nothing.
They might as well have gone
to Barbados instead and got
themselves a decent suntan
and some sex on the beach (the
cocktail, of course). Because
the old bike has turned out to
P134
CN II IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
DUCATI'S
RISKY LEAP
BACK
TO THE
FUTURE
The Ducati GP25
goes straight in
the bin—chassis,
engine and all.
