When Aprilia unveiled its 2020 RS-GP it was obvious that the bike’s overall design followed the Ducati way, but even so the RS-GP did things differently. At first the bike worked well in flowing corners, turning superbly, but not so well at stop-and-go corners, always Ducati’s forte. Thus the Noale engineers chipped away at that, focusing on braking performance, because if a rider can’t get the bike stopped properly, he won’t be able to turn well and, if he’s slow to turn, he will be have to wait before he can get on the throttle, so the entire lap is compromised.
Now the RS-GP is visibly better on the brakes than the Ducati and KTM, which gives Bezzecchi and his fellow Aprilia riders an important advantage, because this is the phase of performance where you can gain more lap time than anywhere else, because good stopping leads to good turning and so on. And it also helps you overtake rivals.
Aprilia’s domination of COTA – Martin winning on Saturday, Bezzecchi on Sunday – was particularly significant for Aprilia, because it was the first weekend of the year without Michelin’s heat-resistant rear slick, used in Thailand and Brazil. This tyre suits the RS-GP better than the Ducati Desmosedici, so there were some concerns that Aprilia’s advantage might evaporate at COTA. But it didn’t.
Meanwhile, what’s gone wrong with Ducati’s Desmosedici? Nothing, really. The change of the guard at the top of MotoGP isn’t so much Ducati going backwards, it’s more Aprilia jumping forwards. That was already happening last year, when the RS-GP won three of the last four races, so the Bologna brand’s domination was already coming to an end.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – Ducati’s new Aprilia-style seat aerofoil and leg wings prove that Aprilia is doing great work
Ducati
Fabio Di Giannantonio, currently Ducati’s top-scoring rider (while reigning champion Márquez struggles with a weak right shoulder), knows that Ducati has plenty of work to do, not only to match the Aprilia, but also KTM’s RC16.
“We need to work a lot to try to recover the gap because the gap with the competition is becoming big,” said the VR46 rider after finishing fifth on Sunday, almost seven seconds down on Bezzecchi.
“I think we need to improve our front. We need to be able to brake harder and bring more speed into the corner with the front. That’s the issue we have at the moment; we are all on the rear, and once the rear is gone we cannot really express our speed. The others can brake a little later, go in with the brakes and use the front to turn the bike.”
The postponement of the Qatar GP, originally scheduled for next week, gives Ducati some time to crunch the numbers and make improvements in time for round four, the Spanish GP, at the end of the month.
