Pecco Bagnaia and Ducati: the secret of their success according to Dani Pedrosa

A secret behind the historic triumph: word of a tester.

Pecco Bagnaia was crowned MotoGP world champion at the end of a season in which, in general, Ducati proved clearly superior to its competitors, especially the big Japanese manufacturers. For Borgo Panigale, however, there was a clear key behind the 2022 successes: at least according to someone who has seen this season’s bikes very closely, Dani Pedrosa.

The Catalan rider is now a test rider for KTM, and in an interview for ‘Speedweek’ he explained what has been one of the main strengths of Bagnaia and Ducati. “They have found perhaps the best balance on the track between exploiting hard and soft compound tires,” Pedrosa explained. “We have often noticed that the compounds can adapt more to specific bikes or on specific circuits. And they have taken advantage of that, since they also have the most bikes on the track.”

“In Ducati, then, they use the tires better than the competition. This also translates into the excellent results they collect in qualifying. Everyone else can only find competitiveness if the compound can actually adapt to the bike. If that doesn’t happen, they run into trouble. Even in KTM we had this problem,” Pedrosa concluded.