Superman had kryptonite, and Ducati – MotoGP’s machine that’s faster than a speeding bullet – has the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. For while the Bologna brand is more powerful than a locomotive seemingly everywhere else, it’s in Barcelona where the world championship’s benchmark bike – and its star rider Francesco Bagnaia – sheds its superhero status.
Ahead of this weekend’s sixth round of the 2024 season, Ducati’s prowess is undeniable; Ducati riders have won 21 of the past 25 Grands Prix dating back to the beginning of 2023, and occupy the first four places in the 2024 championship standings.
Also indisputable; the 4.6-kilometre circuit in the municipality of Montmelo has become Ducati’s Achilles’ heel.
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Since Ducati last won in Barcelona in 2018, all of the other manufacturers in modern-day MotoGP have tasted victory. Honda in 2019, Yamaha in 2020 and ’22, KTM in 2021 and Aprilia last year – it’s the single circuit that routinely tips the established order upside down.
So why does the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya trip Ducati up so badly? The grip provided by the track is one factor, its layout another.
The circuit – also used by Formula One – is one of the busiest in Europe with track days, junior series and other categories pounding around it year-round, and hasn’t been resurfaced since 2018. The worn asphalt is smooth and slick, doesn’t grip up and is akin to a skating rink in hot weather, dulling Ducati’s class-leading power delivery. A patient right hand on the throttle, bringing your power in slowly but in a linear fashion, is the fastest way around.
And that track layout? Long, long corners – torturous turns where the bike is leaned over for huge chunks of time relative to other stop-go types of circuits, and one that suits Aprilia in particular. The RS-GP machine – famed for its ability to carry long-corner exit speed and less sensitive to suboptimal track grip than its rivals – was on another planet last year, Aleix Espargaro winning the Catalunya sprint race and Grand Prix proper, and teammate Maverick Vinales making it a 1-2 result for the Italian brand in the main race.
While Aprilia is where most of the smart money will be going this weekend, it was Espargaro who hogged the headlines on Thursday’s media day; here’s your Insider’s Guide of what to watch from round six of the MotoGP season.
ESPARGARO CALLS TIME
As the oldest rider on the grid and out of contract at the end of 2024, Espargaro’s future has been a relatively minor discussion point in the MotoGP silly season, the 34-year-old a secondary consideration behind the three-into-two decision facing Ducati with Enea Bastianini, Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez.
But the Aprilia rider took centre-stage on Thursday, announcing at the circuit where he could hear the bikes on track when he was at school in nearby Granollers to confirm that this season will be his last.
Espargaro’s career arc has been highly unusual; he first competed in the 125cc class of the world championship in 2004, and it took until his 12th MotoGP season to record a victory, which came in Argentina in 2022. His best four years have been his last four, with 10 podiums and two more wins, the most recent in Catalunya 12 months ago. But, he said, the time – and timing – was right.
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“This is a special place, where I began riding, and where last year was a dream come true to me so it’s the perfect place to announce that I will retire from being a full-time rider,” he said, struggling to fight back the tears.
“My trajectory has been quite different … no-one, not even a Hollywood movie, could have thought that at 30 years old, I could win races and take podiums with a brand that hadn’t done it before. My head says I can continue racing and be fast on a grid of riders who are the best in history. I feel competitive and physically good, but my heart is asking me to stop.”
Espargaro’s future – he’s almost certainly set to be employed as Aprilia’s test rider to shepherd the Italian brand into MotoGP’s new regulations set for 2027 – is not yet confirmed, but what was evident on Thursday was the reverence in which the veteran is held. Half the riders on the MotoGP grid attended his retirement speech, recognising his grind in helping Aprilia emerge from the factory nobody wanted to ride for when he joined in 2017 to one that’s now capable of winning Grands Prix.
Fellow Spaniard and 2020 world champion Joan Mir led the chorus of praise.
“Aleix has given us all a lesson in recent years, he started in a super-complicated situation in MotoGP and held on there and when he has had a competitive bike he has been very fast,” the Honda rider said.
“There are not so many people who last for a long time in a situation. He is an example and a hard worker and I hope he is very happy, he deserves it.”
BAGNAIA’S BAFFLING HOODOO
For reigning world champion Bagnaia, Barcelona comes at the worst possible time; the Italian is in need of a strong weekend after falling 38 points behind series leader Martin in France last time out, a margin that ensures the Spaniard will head to round seven at Mugello next weekend still in the lead with a maximum of 37 points available in Spain.
Bagnaia would be happy to even finish a lap this year; in 2022 he was taken out at the first corner by Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami, while last year, he made it as far as the second turn before a vicious high-side sent him skywards and into the path of the trailing pack, Brad Binder (KTM) running over Bagnaia’s right leg in an accident that could have had far greater consequences than a ghastly-looking haematoma.
If Barcelona is a rare bad track for Ducati – the Italian marque has won there four times in its 21-year MotoGP tenure, and just twice since 2008 – it’s even worse for Bagnaia; in 11 years across all three world championship classes, he’s never finished better than sixth, which came in his sophomore MotoGP season in 2020.
On pole last year, Bagnaia never got the chance to see if he could fight the Aprilias on a circuit tailor-made to their strengths.
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“I hope to finish at least three corners this season,” he laughed.
“Last year, the first two [practice] sessions we were so competitive and on Sunday we had some issues and didn’t have the chance to finish the race. But last year I was feeling great and was able to compete with the Aprilia, and in the Sunday race with the medium tyre I think our potential could have been very high, but [we achieved] nothing.
“Let’s see this season … I think the new bike can help us, we’ll have less grip but more turning so it could be a good compromise. For sure, Aprilia are the ones to beat.”
Bagnaia said time has allowed him to move on from last year’s terrifying crash, where he was able to escape with relatively minor injuries despite the entire pack bearing down on him as he lay prone across the track.
“Last year was one of the hardest crashes of my career, it was huge and unexpected and then Binder crossed my leg, so it wasn’t easy,” he said.
“But it’s the past, I already fought against this crash last year. I know perfectly the reason why I crashed, and I’m 100 per cent sure that it will not affect anything about the weekend.”
COULD APRILIA LAND DUCATI’S ODD MAN OUT?
Espargaro’s exit from Aprilia at the end of the season opens up a slot on what is arguably the second-best bike in MotoGP, with Honda and Yamaha in an all-Japanese battle to stay off the bottom of the pack, and KTM not kicking on from a strong 2023 campaign that saw South African Brad Binder finish fourth in the world championship.
Espargaro stepping away means the Italian factory will almost certainly offer Maverick Vinales, who dominated the Americas Grand Prix in Texas this year, a new two-year deal for the final two seasons of MotoGP’s current rule set. The identity of his teammate, though, remains a mystery – but likely not for long.
Should Bastianini, Bagnaia’s current factory Ducati teammate who appears to be third in line behind Martin and Marquez (in whatever order) to retain his own seat, slips out of Ducati altogether, he’s at right age (26) and stage of his career (five wins across four seasons) to be a credible candidate to help finish what Espargaro started, making Aprilia a perennial powerhouse as the series shifts to 850cc machinery in 2027.
Meanwhile, Martin – who has repeatedly indicated it’s either a seat in Ducati factory red alongside Bagnaia or out of Ducati altogether – gave an expansively vague answer when asked if his management was in talks with Aprilia or KTM in case the Ducati door slams shut.
“The results at Le Mans or Jerez or what will happen here will not change the final thing what is going to happen,” Martin said.
“I understand Ducati’s timings, they need to understand what they need, how to put everything together. So let’s wait. For sure in the next two weeks, I will decide my future as I will know the Ducati decision and also about my choices.
“I am happy that a lot of factories have knocked on my door, this means we are doing a good job.”
MILLER: I KNOW MY WORTH
Jack Miller has brushed off comments made in Motorsport Magazin by KTM motorsports director Pit Beirer, who said the under-fire Australian’s performances have been “a bit lacking at the moment for a MotoGP seat” after the French Grand Prix earlier in May.
Miller, who has scored just 24 points from the opening five rounds of the season to sit 13th in the championship standings, hasn’t finished the past two Grands Prix, taken out at Jerez by Ducati’s Franco Morbidelli, and crashing when running in 12th place in Le Mans a fortnight ago.
Miller, out of contract at the end of 2024, has been comprehensively outscored by KTM Factory Racing teammate Binder (67-24) so far this season, while at KTM-owned GasGas, star rookie Pedro Acosta has 60 more points than 2022 Moto2 champion Augusto Fernandez (73-13) after five rounds.
After France, Beirer said he wanted to persist with his current quartet of riders, but insisted Miller and Fernandez needed to raise their games with just four of this year’s 22 riders having deals for next season.
“The current performances of Jack and Augusto are a bit lacking at the moment for a MotoGP seat,” Beirer told the German publication.
“We still have time, but not much time, and they need to take steps forward.
“Augusto and Jack don’t need to take giant steps, but they need to be small steps forward to stabilise the package.
“Of course there is movement in the rider market. Other really good-sounding names are calling us, and that makes you think.”
Asked to respond to Beirer’s comments on Thursday, Miller was part-dismissive, part-defiant.
“In terms of this weekend and [the Italian Grand Prix] next weekend, that’s all I’ve got to worry about,” he shrugged.
“The rest of them … they can do what they want to do. I know what I’ve brought to the project, I know what I will continue to bring to the project until the end of it. I’m in good spirits and training the hardest I ever have, trying to be the best I ever have.”
Miller, who has one Catalunya podium (third in 2021 for Ducati) on his MotoGP CV, scored 16 of his 24 points this season in round two in Portugal, and knows more is required.
“The only thing we’ve really got to [point] at are the two fifths in Portimao, so definitely want to try to put some more points on the board and have a decent, trouble-free weekend,” he said.
Source Agencies
